Taunt
by Supreme Distraction
Summary: But Vi was the only one who actually put up with her pranks and schemes. Vi understood that, sometimes, it was necessary to break things. "Incredible." Morgana sighed. "We wielders of the dark arts are blessed with eternal life. You could wait for eons, find the proper match for yourself. You could have anyone you want. And yet you choose her—a human? And a vulgar human at that."
1. Intro

Hello! and welcome to my first multi-chaptered _League of Legends_ fic. I got this idea in my head that Annie would be awesome if she was older and it just kind of took flight. I changed up the writing style again, made it a bit more focused on the gaming mechanics/slang and the actual Fields of Justice that many of us have come to love. I played with certain details (Vi's gauntlets, Annie's age, Piltover) as I saw fit.

You can view my version of the older Dark Child in all her glory here, minus the spaces:

supremedistraction. deviantart art/Annie-Hastur-Older-377832997

Otherwise, enjoy ;D

**-Taunt-**

"Play with me!"

"I swear…"

"C'mon… It'll be fun!"

"Can it, pipsqueak. I can't play with you right now."

The "pipsqueak" in question pouted. As the youngest member of the League of Legends, Annie Hastur often found herself bored out of her mind; even with Tibbers—the shadow bear she had spellbound in the stuffed doll version of its true terrifying form—around, she never seemed to be able to find a playmate to keep her entertained.

Which was why she resorted to irritating the ever-loving hell out of the other Champions.

Her taunt, "Beaten by a little girl… Hah!" was perhaps the most 'spammed' phrase, ranking right up there with Tristana's "Is that a rocket in your pocket?" and Alistar's "YOU CAN'T MILK THOSE!"

After all, Summoners were jerks.

The girl's current target, a muscular young woman with a punk-rocker sort of look about her, raised the gigantic hextech gauntlets she usually wore with a threatening, "I'm not above hitting a kid."

Okay, so maybe playing with Vi _wouldn't _be fun. Normally it would be since the pink-haired bruiser enjoyed causing trouble almost as much as the Dark Child did, but apparently she wasn't in the mood right then. The magenta-haired mage blew a raspberry in the woman's direction and skipped away, clutching Tibbers to the breast of her school uniform—the standard sweater vest-dress shirt-skirt combo complete with shiny black Mary Janes. She had spiced up the look with a headband that bore pointed cat ears and thick knee high socks that were striped with shades of her favorite colour, purple.

"I wish I was big, Tibbers. Then mean old Vi would stop treating me like a kid."

The teddy, or rather the malevolent spirit within the cloth covering, growled.

It wasn't just Vi, of course. Even Lux, who happened to be a few years older, looked down on her as though she was some spoiled brat who had managed to get to the League by pure luck.

She had more magical energy in her little finger than that stupid light bulb had in her entire body!

But Vi was the only one who actually put up with her pranks and schemes. Vi understood that, sometimes, it was necessary to break things. To burn things.

The pyromaniac sighed and kicked the ground, not really sure where to go now. The Rift was empty for the moment while the Summoners were still in queue and the Champions from the last match with the exception of herself, Vi, Kayle and Morgana, had vacated the premises in favor of the in-between world that Champions waited in to be sent back to their original worlds.

Wait… That was it! The sorceress was even more powerful than the Dark Child. _She _could help Annie get what she wanted.

With that in mind, the little girl skipped off, towards Baron Nashor's pit.

* * *

Sure enough, the Fallen Angel was hovering just above the chasm where the giant beast usually spawned as Annie had expected.

What she _hadn't _expected to see was her sister, Kayle, in her arms, their lips sealed together while the younger sister's purple-feathered wings worked steadily to keep the both of them aloft.

"We should stop meeting like this," Morgana purred playfully, nipping the blonde's bottom lip.

The Judicator—the polar opposite of the purple-haired woman—smiled warmly, those intense cerulean eyes that Annie knew for a fact could calm a charging Dragon a few shades darker as they focused on her younger sister. "I want you."

Clawed fingers cupped the older woman's cheek, skimming lightly along the high, elegant cheekbone. "Oh?"

"Mm…"

"Show me."

Kayle snorted, but buried her long fingers in a mane of purple waves and pulled Morgana back in, their lips connecting with the fierceness of warriors, tongues darting out and dancing against each other like nimble weapons.

Annie blinked, her bright green eyes widening. She wasn't so naïve that she didn't know what the two were up to, but she wasn't sure why her face was heating up or why her heart was racing like that.

Unbidden, an image of a certain pink-haired bruiser holding her with the same possessive force that Kayle was Morgana filled her mind's eye and that blush only got worse.

"I'll miss you."

She had been so lost in thought that she had missed the end of the kiss—the sisters' farewell.

"You'll be back before you know it," was the gruff response.

Kayle nodded, disappearing back to her realm in a glittering surge of magic. Despite her earlier bravado, the spell-caster's shoulders drooped and she sighed.

"What's the matter? Miss your sister?" Annie asked, stepping out of the bush in front of Baron's pit.

The Fallen Angel rounded on the young mage, her eyes glowing a furious shade of purple. "What do you want?"

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone about you and Kayle—I promise."

"…" The sorceress landed before the girl, towering over her both physically and with her intimidating presence. She knew that a spell caster's favours were not given out freely. "And what must I do in return, Dark Child?"

Annie hugged her teddy, swinging it back and forth as she swayed. "I need a teeny tiny spell to make me alllllll grown up."

"And why would you need such a thing?"

When the magenta-haired child shook her head vehemently, Morgana crouched, grabbing the young mage's chin with a clawed hand. There was none of the gentleness Annie had witnessed before with Kayle—merely impatience. "Answer me."

But the dark magic that fueled Annie's powers rose up, responding to the pull of the powerful sorceress's and her question was answered in the form of a series of images, each more graphic than the last. If she was surprised, she didn't show it. "Are you certain that is what you want? Vi may not—"

"I know what I'm doing," the girl insisted, frowning.

"Incredible." Morgana sighed and reached up to pull a feather from her wings. It began to decay almost immediately, but her eyes glowed and the process halted. "We wielders of the dark arts are blessed with eternal life. You could wait for eons, find the proper match for yourself. You could have anyone you want. And yet you choose _her_—a human? And a vulgar human at that."

The dark mage cast _Black Shield _on herself the moment she sensed a surge of magic and, sure enough, the pyromaniac cast _Summon Tibbers _right next to her, releasing her shadow bear from his fluffy prison.

"Don't make me hurt you." Annie had always had a short temper. Hearing the Fallen Angel bad-mouth one of the few people she actually cared about was a no-no. Temper or no, she knew better than to seriously challenge the Fallen Angel and the spell had been a warning one.

The massive, flaming ursine creature beside her roared in agreement, flexing his claws and sneering down at the woman.

"Tch." The purple, hexagonally-tiled barrier around the woman dissipated and she held out the feather, now a pure white. "It is merely a charm for the time being. If you can manage to carry out your plot then you can make the spell permanent."

That last bit of the charm had been out of generosity and the child knew it. She grinned, throwing her arms around the spell-caster's leg. "Thankyouthankyouthankyou!"

Magical affinity increased with age. The Dark Child already had so much potential bottled up in that little body that it would be a crying shame not to see where it could lead. And knowing her propensity for mayhem, the transformation would likely provide plenty of entertainment with a side of mass destruction.

Or so Morgana told herself.

She was _not _helping the child because she knew Kayle would approve. Not one bit.

x-x-x

"Gah… Maybe I was too hard on the kid," Vi sighed. Normally she wouldn't have cared, but the twerp seemed to be the only one around here who understood that a little bit of destruction was a good thing.

Her partner, Caitlyn, had been bitching at her to clean up her act as of late, so playing the Dark Child's games was off limits.

At least for today, anyway.

The Piltover Enforcer groaned and plopped down on a the fountain's steps, twisting her hands within her hextech gauntlets so that the systems powering them went offline and they began to cave in on themselves, collapsing into more manageably sized metal vambraces. Just a little while longer and the return spell would activate, sending her home to Piltover. At least there she could grab something to eat and hopefully find a way to occupy herself.

All work and no play made the "one girl wrecking crew" want to break things.

A return portal popped into existence before the bruiser, its shining face reflecting the tall buildings and bright neon lights of her home town, bathing the blue team base with luminosity.

Honestly, spell-casters were such show-offs. It was all smoke and mirrors for them—nothing could be presented in a straightforward manner.

The fighter was quite the opposite: whatever she did, she did without playing mind games or putting on silly airs. Same with the way she spoke. Why disguise shit? In the end, it was still shit.

As she stepped into the luminescence, Vi took one last look at the realm she was leaving behind, shaking her head disapprovingly at the general direction of the dark, monster-infested jungle. "If I'm called back here to jungle one more time, I think I'll kill someone."

Then she blinked and was standing in front of a desk in a stuffy little office, a severe young woman with long brown hair and a purple and yellow-striped top hat sitting behind the aforementioned piece of furniture—Caitlyn, her partner. The sniper looked up from the documents she had spread out, frowned, and said in that odd (because, honestly, Piltover was nowhere near any such posh-sounding peoples) accent of hers, "You've returned. I trust you haven't caused any trouble?"

"You've got way too much faith in me, lady," the bruiser drawled, pacing over to the empty doorway to lean against it rather than sitting in the chair in front of the Sheriff of Piltover's desk. She didn't like being right next to the brunette while she was being interrogated… The woman hadn't been handed her title for nothing. "Yeah, yeah. I was on my best behavior."

"Coming from you, I suppose that's something. Keep your nose clean. Dismissed."

Vi sketched a sarcastic salute with an, "Aye, aye, boss lady." before sauntering out of the office and heading down the hallway. She almost smashed into someone exiting the elevator, but when she saw who it was, she was disappointed that she had missed the chance to inflict some pain.

Jayce, the pretty boy of Piltover, had been attempting to court her boss for ages now and that was just sad and awkward. The no-nonsense Sheriff had turned him down at every given chance, but it seemed male stupidity was boundless—especially in these sorts of situations.

Apparently Caitlyn was the _only _woman to have turned down the Defender of Tomorrow in this town… Good on her.

"Move it, Jayce," the pinkette growled, strong-arming him aside. "Can't you see I'm busy?"

He scoffed, but merely dusted off his broad shoulders and headed away, in the direction of Caitlyn's office.

"Poor sap," the bruiser mumbled, jabbing the button that would take her to the lobby. "You'll never catch me pining after some up-tight chick—no matter _how_ attractive."

Not that there was anyone worth pining after in this damn city. Piltover was the epicenter of innovation and invention and yet it was rather lacking in the 'attractive babes' category.

Caitlyn was pretty alright, but once again that up-tight chick thing kind of ruined it. Besides, dating (or just fucking) a coworker was at the top of Vi's 'never again' list after the sniper had torn her a new one about fraternizing on the job.

Just remembering that particular tongue lashing made the hair on her neck stand on end.

In summary, there was no one of interest here in Piltover. But that was okay, the Summoners actually came in handy with their ceaseless demands as the Rift was a perfect place to meet new people.

People like the bodacious Ahri (an exotic Asian vixen with a perfect hourglass figure to die for), the gentle Sona (curvy, cute, and utterly silent? What wasn't there to like!?), and the untamed Nidalee (what could she say, she liked a girl that could challenge her and the brunette had proven herself to be quite flexible with that spear of hers).

There was so much to choose from in other realms… Why limit herself to this one?

Vi smirked, entering the code for her hover car into the parking system. Life was great sometimes. The system whirred to life and her vehicle—a sleek black beauty with gold details—glided smoothly over to her, the driver-side door lifting open with a hydraulic hiss as it came to a stop.

"Home," the pinkette commanded, hopping into the driver's seat and syncing her credentials with the flight system. "It's been a long day and I'm beat."

"Right away, madam" Emma, the AI that ran the network of electronic systems associated with the Piltover Enforcer's credentials chirped. The program had adapted the same odd accent as the Piltover Sheriff with the hopes that the pinkette would heed 'her' advice more often. It even worked sometimes. "Did you want me to start dinner?"

"What would I do without you, Em?"

There was a giggle and Vi was reminded of a certain magenta-haired kid that had been bugging her to play all day. It was weird, but telling Annie 'no' made the pinkette feel… Wrong? No, not quite.

Guilt wasn't something the bruiser was used to.

**-End Chapter-**


	2. Babysitting With Vi and Morgana!

More on Annie's changes and the plight of a certain pink-haired bruiser. On with the show:

**-Babysitting With Vi and Morgana!-**

Morgana lifted a clawed hand and it glowed with magical energies, revealing the cozy cottage she had tucked away in some forgotten corner of Valoran. This was her home—the place she went to when the matches were over or even when she simply needed a space all to herself so that she could breathe.

Which was why the presence of another made the Fallen Angel's skin crawl.

There had only ever been one other person in her home and that was her sister, Kayle. No one else was even remotely welcome within skill shot range of this place.

The mage balled glowing purple hands into fists and the door slammed inwards, rocking the building's entire frame in her outrage.

How the fuck had anyone even found her haven, much less gotten in?!

"You…"

Annie smiled sheepishly up at Morgana from her seat on the floor, her eyes unusually shiny. Had she… Been crying?

The purplette was so floored that her rage bled out of her, leaving only confusion. "What are you doing here, child?"

"I-I can't control it."

"Control _what_?"

The Dark Child lifted the feather charm she had been given, clutching it gingerly between her index and middle finger. The silky white plumage was covered in soot. "My p-powers. I can't control them." Tears began to well up in bright green eyes. "I c-can't find Tibbers!"

Morgana's exasperated sigh was drowned out by a hiccupped sob. "Stop that dreadful racket this instant," she snapped, bustling over and snatching the charm up. She could feel the warped energy that had soaked into it dance under her fingertips and it made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. _'Odd.' _ "Tell me exactly what happened."

"The charm… *hic* Made me big like you said…"

"Of course it did. That's what you asked for."

"But the minute I was big, I lost control of m-my powers." She sniffled. "It was scary. Tibbers kept roaring and then he… He…"

Before the child could resume her god-awful din, the Fallen Angel commanded, "Show me."

"I d-don't want to. I just want Tibbers back!"

"And what of Vi?"

That shut the magenta-haired caster up faster than any spell could. She rubbed at her eyes and scowled. "V-Vi would have laughed… And called me a child."

"But you aren't just a child."

"No!"

"Show me." She held out the feather, curiosity burning in her dark eyes.

There was a brief hesitation, but the Dark Child accepted the offered trinket, her eyelids fluttering shut as her hand became enveloped with flame. Morgana was about to comment on the safety of her charm when a flare of heat and brilliance caused her to avert her eyes, recoiling instinctively. It was like having a small sun in her living room.

When the radiance had died, a young woman stood in the center of a scorch mark on the wooden floor. She was tall—almost as tall as Morgana, in fact—and thin, her heart-shaped face with high, defined cheekbones and full, pouty lips framed by dark red locks that reached the small of her back and curled up at the ends. The school uniform that the mage had been so fond of wearing had expanded with her, though it seemed the swell of magical energy had fused the cat-eared headband to her head and transformed it into an actual pair of ears that now laid flat against the young woman's head in her unease.

"_See_?" Even her voice had changed from that whiney, high pitched squeak to a huskier tone that was almost… pleasurable to hear.

All Morgana was seeing was that her charm had been a complete success.

Too much of a success, she found, as the dark power that swirled within the tiny body of the Dark Child expanded rapidly to fill this new form, flames randomly flaring into existence and searing the air around the young woman as she gasped and clutched her head.

It was like having a fucking sun in her living room.

The Fallen Angel quickly cast _Black Shield, _trapping the girl and her growing inferno within to protect her home from further fire-related damages. "Concentrate or you'll burn everything to cinders."

"I… Can't…"

Even those bright green eyes were ablaze and a wild, fiery form was growing behind her, pushing at the walls of Morgana's barrier.

It seemed she had found Tibbers.

"You can control your power just as you did before, child. You need to _focus!_"

The girl lowered her head, dark hair falling over her face, and the figure loomed, a whirling mass of darkness and flame.

She had seen enough. The sorceress cast a _Dark Binding_, the glowing purple energy hitting just as her _Black Shield _dissolved entirely and pinning the younger spell-caster against the far wall. There was a crack as something—no doubt priceless—fell to the floor, but one object was far better than losing her whole damned house.

Annie slumped, panting slightly. When she raised her gaze, her eyes widened. "Tibbers?"

"Focus," Morgana warned, hands glowing as she tightened the bindings around the girl. As powerful as she was, the mage actually wasn't sure if she could hold back the random influxes of power that the Dark Child kept giving off. Her capacity for dark magic was incredible.

The charm wasn't some half-assed vanity spell—it actually changed the girl psychologically and physiologically so that she aged to a certain point. Who knew what Annie would be capable of when she got even older?

The fiery figure reached for the bound young woman and she yelped, jerking away and struggling against her bindings. "Let me go!"

"Control yourself."

Bright green eyes slammed shut, a halo of flames scorching the air around her. "_Stop it!_"

The bindings shattered and Morgana was pushed backwards by a rolling wave of hot air; the sorceress swore, her wings fluttering slightly, and cast a spell in a last-ditch effort to save her home from certain disaster—

—And the two materialized just above a sparkling stream cutting through an open field.

It took a moment for gravity to take effect, causing Annie to fall like a stone into the clear depths while Morgana soared over to the shore.

By the time the young woman had flopped onto dry land, gasping and spluttering, she was soaked to the bone, a decidedly unhappy frown curving full lips.

"That wasn't fun."

"No, it was not. And neither was watching you almost burn down my house," the mage snapped. At least now the flames had died down—literally and figuratively.

"Sorry… I feel better now, though."

"Tch. How did you find me, anyway?"

The red-head shrugged, lifting a hand to shield her eyes from the afternoon sun. "I was scared and I really wished there was someone to help me. You and LeBlanc are the only sorceresses I know and _she's _meaner than you are. My magic just kind of took it from there."

She supposed that was a compliment.

"Ugh… This body feels so heavy."

"You are not accustomed to being this size. You just need to practice with this form as you do with keeping control of your new abilities."

"New abilities?"

She heaved another sigh. "That bear of yours isn't gone. It has merely shed its physical form because your powers have grown enough to command it in its purest state. That being said, your powers are very much the same in mechanics. You simply have a larger pool to draw from, so to speak. Thus, you are capable of greater spells." The sorceress frowned. "Why are you staring at me like that?"

"I'm glad you're here to help me out," the girl admitted with a shy little smile. "Thank you."

Manners appeared to be another thing the child had developed. How nice.

The dark sorceress scoffed. "Make no mistake, my only desire is to get you out of my hair."

Kayle was making her soft, damnit.

And that was how the Fallen Angel got roped into retraining the child-turned-woman in the art of dark magic. Between matches, the two would meet in the open field and the Dark Child would practice keeping a tight leash on her powers until she was dead on her feet.

The amount of focus it took to keep the fire within from consuming everything in its reach was enormous and it had taken Annie hours of practice to get the hang of bottling it up without initial assistance from a certain purple-haired mage but she had eventually done it.

Any little slip-up could result in the unintended destruction of someone or something, Morgana kept reminding her. And that was why she put her all into her training, even managing to sit in still, quiet meditation while energy rocketed around inside her, just begging to be freed.

The girl had matured, that much was certain.

An entire week passed before Annie was able to use the charm without incident; before she could confidently switch forms and interact with Morgana without feeling as though she would accidentally harm the older woman; before the grass beneath her feet didn't catch fire the moment the soles of her shoes touched it and the air around her didn't shimmer like a mirage in the desert.

A week during which the two mages had become the talk of the Rift. Apparently two dark magic users could not spend an extended amount of time together without some sort of dastardly scheme being involved… Idiots.

It wasn't as though the Fallen Angel could tell the whisperers what was going on. If anyone ever found out that she had used her powers to help someone, she'd be treated like some sort of genie and never hear the end of it.

Only the Summoners had an inkling of the truth, as comments about Annie's sudden "buff" were floating about the realm.

Let them believe what they wanted.

"I'm ready."

Morgana blinked. She had forgotten that Annie was even there in her ruminative state. The two had returned to the open meadow for one last lesson before the Fields of Justice were vacated for the night. "Are you certain?"

She nodded. "Yeah… I'm in control."

"Very well."

There was a flash as the young woman regained the form of a little girl and then the purplette was being hugged again. "Thanks for all your help!"

She scoffed, but didn't respond, choosing instead to rest a clawed hand atop pink hair.

It was the best Annie was going to get.

* * *

The final test of Annie's control would be, of course, in battle—preferably one that was hosted on the Fields of Justice so that no damage to her opponent would be permanent.

Physically, anyway.

Morgana crossed her arms over her chest, concealed from view in river bush as she watched her impetuous student stride confidently past the last Turret on her side of the field in mid lane, the feather pinned to the breast of her sweater vest.

The plucky blonde that had accepted her challenge, Lux the Lady of Luminosity, marched past her Turret at the exact same time, twirling her wand between her fingertips. "Hey, are you a new Champion? I've never seen you around here before," she called. "I don't think you want to stand there. I'm supposed to be fighting someone."

Annie smirked. "It's me, Lux. You're fighting me."

Blue eyes widened. "Annie…?"

"The one and only. Ready to lose?"

"I never think about losing," the blonde responded immediately, leaping nimbly backwards to avoid the _Incinerate _that burned a conic path through the air where she had just been standing.

The girl's reflexes were as quick as her mouth, Annie would give her that.

Still, it had only been a warning shot to test out the new range on the spell—it had easily doubled.

A crafty, pleased giggle bubbled out of Annie's throat and she was soon clutching her sides, the warmth of the power coursing through her only serving to heighten her good mood.

"W-what's so funny?" Lux demanded, hurtling an anomaly of twisted light in the older girl's direction as she ducked under a lazyfireball that managed to char the ends of her hair with its intense heat.

"Try to keep up," the red-head chirped, harnessing another wave of flame and shooting it out of her fingertips, forcing the blonde to toss her wand, the _Prismatic Barrier _it activated on its return to her hand only just managing to save herself from a wicked scorching. She stepped neatly out of the shimmering _Lucent Singularity _that Lux threw in her direction, a _Molten Shield _shimmering into existence around the young woman and spell-shielding her from the snaring effect of the Lady of Luminosity's _Light Binding_.

It hadn't done that before.

Lux seemed just as surprised, her eyebrows drawing together in consternation. She was sure that the skill shot had landed. 100% positive.

The hesitation was all it took for Annie to close the distance between them so that she could _Summon Tibbers_, her power bursting forth in the form of a gigantic vortex of embers that danced around a monstrous creature that was more energy than bear. It swiped at Lux with a fiery paw, sending the girl sailing across the lane.

Even Morgana felt a tickle of something akin to fear at the back of her mind as Tibbers loomed, reaching for the fallen caster.

"That's enough." She said it quietly, but she knew the Dark Child could hear her with those sensitive cat ears of hers.

Still Tibbers closed its claws around Lux's ankle and she scrambled backwards; her wand whirled and an immense beam of light erupted from it, forcing the other mages to shield their eyes lest they be blinded by its resplendence.

When the flare of brilliance from Lux's _Final Spark _faded, Morgana was shocked to see that Annie's familiar seemed unharmed, its frightening maw twisted into a malicious grin as it dragged the girl closer.

Lux screamed and the Fallen Angel took flight, her form blurring as she sped for Annie.

Bright green eyes shone with a sadistic glee and the young woman gestured; instantly, the ashen woman was the creature's target and she summoned _Tormented Soil _beneath it, causing it to snarl in pain.

Apparently dark magic was the only way to harm it.

"Focus, child," Morgana warned for what felt like the hundredth time that week, her hands glowing as she simultaneously shielded herself and tossed a _Dark Binding _to keep the bear from advancing on her. It was zoning her pretty badly, keeping her away from its mistress. "_You _control Tibbers. Don't let_ him_ control _you_."

"I'm not a child."

Tibbers roared, turning from Morgana to the cowering Lux and licked his chops.

"You are a child so long as you continue to behave like one."

Tibbers growled, turning from the cowering Lux to Morgana and baring his teeth.

The red-head scoffed, but the bloodlust that the sorceress had sensed had died down. With a wave of her hand, the shadow bear collapsed into ashes around her feet. "You're free to go, Light bulb." She smiled charmingly, locking away the tidal wave of magical energies that she had finally had the chance to unleash. "Thanks for playing with me," she added, sweetly.

The Lady of Luminosity would likely never look her in the eyes again much less treat her like a child.

x-x-x

Vi jerked awake, blinking groggily. She swore she had heard someone call her name… Maybe it was her imagination?

"MISS VI!" Emma's voice roared through the house, rattling the silverware in its drawers.

The pinkette yelped, falling from her bed and landing on the hard floor in a disgruntled heap. She was on her feet in the next moment, her dukes up. "Huh? What is it?" A tall, dark-haired woman dressed in a button-up blouse and form-fitting black slacks materialized right next to her and she flinched. "Shit, Em, I told you not to do that without giving me some warning."

"Apologies." The A.I smiled sheepishly, wide green eyes sparkling with mirth even as she said it. "You're receiving an urgent call from the Sheriff. Should I accept?"

The bruiser glanced at the holographic clock tower display that sat in the corner of her room opposite her bed: the big hand was a squick away from the numeral five and the little hand hovered just over the six.

Four-fucking-thirty in the morning.

Who in their right mind would even be up at this time—much less rudely yanking people out of their slumber?!

"Answer," she growled.

"Yes, ma'am." Emma's form wavered, adjusting to mirror the Piltover Sheriff's dimensions. The next time the A.I spoke, it was in Caitlyn's voice, "There's a young woman here to see you."

"_That's _the terribly important thing you had Emma scare the absolute shit outta me for?" Vi demanded incredulously, not bothering, in her anger, to question who in the world would come to call at this hour. "Seriously, Cait? That's fuckin'—"

"She appeared out of nowhere and nearly burned down my office," Caitlyn said, interrupting what was sure to be a colourful tirade. "Come and receive your guest. _Now_."

The brunette didn't wait for a response before she abruptly ended the call and Emma's form wavered again. "She's not very happy."

'_Burned…?_' There was only one Champion she knew that had control over fire, but Caitlyn would have just said it was Annie. This newcomer might be a fresh face on the Fields of Justice… But then why was she seeking out Vi? "No, she isn't. Might as well head down there and see what all the commotion is about."

"I've prepared breakfast and the car is around front."

"Why aren't _all _women made like you, Em?"

"That would be highly illogical." A chuckle. "Still, the sentiment is appreciated, madam."

* * *

Fortunately (or unfortunately considering the ease with which Caitlyn could reach her), the sheriff's office was a short distance from Vi's place. In fact, she could have walked if the weather had permitted such a thing—a torrential downpour had begun the moment the pinkette had stepped outside.

The system that kept the gross weather at bay had been on the fritz for weeks... Man, someone up there hated her.

Soaked to the bone and dripping onto her leather interior, the bruiser was in a worse mood than before, if that was possible. "Could this morning get any better?" she muttered. To which, of course, Vi's hover car came shuddering to a halt and a miniature version of Emma appeared atop the dashboard, hands clasped behind her. "Previous route compromised. Attempting to find an alternate route."

"'Compromised'?" she repeated incredulously. Piltover's crime rate had plummeted thanks to Caitlyn and, to a lesser extent, Vi and Jayce. "By _what_?"

There was a pause. "Access to any further information is denied by the Piltover Police Department, madam."

"Like Hell it is." She rummaged around in her glove compartment and pulled out her badge, swiping it impatiently in front of the spherical device. "Spill."

"One moment." The vehicle shuddered as the volume of rain pelting it increased. "Bridge to sector 0089 is under attack. Attacker identified as a result of an accident originating from Techmaturgical Laboratories late last night."

That crazy old yordle… What the hell was he up to now?

With a wrathful growl, the bruiser unlocked the driver side door and it opened upwards with a hiss to let a wave of water in.

"Madam, leaving the vehicle isn't advisable—"

"Can it." Pressing a button on either wrist of her vambraces, the Piltover Enforcer performed a _Vault Breaker _upwards, into the torrent, her hextech gauntlets having returned to full size by the time her forward momentum had died. Now standing on a roof in the rain, the pink-haired fighter squinted in the gloom, sharp azure eyes scanning for any sign of disturbance.

"Madam…" Emma began reproachfully from the communicator on the inside of the bruiser's high collar. Normally it was used for police business. "Please remember what Miss Caitlyn reprimanded you for."

What had the sniper been caterwauling about? Oh yeah, something about not thinking before she acted.

"This is police department business, right? And I'm a member of it."

"Yes, but…"

"No 'but's. Now shut it so I can focus."

There was a nearly inaudible sigh, but Vi knew she had won. For now, anyway. The system had a habit of keeping tabs on her like a little angel on her shoulder.

As if the bruiser really needed a conscience.

The building beneath her feet quaked and Vi snapped to attention, leaping onto another rooftop nearby as she caught sight of a rather large object glistening gold in the downpour: a beefy looking humanoid robot towered over the streetlights, its large, glowing hands crushing cars as though they were tin cans as it searched for… something.

She didn't think, just threw herself off the building, one huge gauntleted hand drawn back. Twenty stories later, she threw a punch infused with _Excessive Force _towards the ground, the blast of blue-white energy both cushioning her landing and knocking the mechanized being backwards, into the side of a building.

'_Whoops.'_

But there was no time to worry about it now as she threw her hands up in front of her, blocking an oncoming beam of energy from the visor of her opponent's helmeted head and grunting as her boots were driven into the pavement. She could feel the metal of her weapons heating and heard the hiss of rain evaporating upon impact and she flung her hands apart, shrugging her shoulders and beckoning cockily.

"Let's get to the fun part."

The ground shifted underneath her feet and the bruiser was suddenly thrown aside, crashing into the windshield of a hover car parked at the side of the street with a sharp crack as the glass shattered on impact.

She actually felt sorry for the owner… It was—no, _had been_ a pretty sweet ride.

The pinkette quickly rolled clear of the mess of metal a split second before a pod of rockets decimated the car and the street beneath it.

"Holy fuck, Heimer…" Vi coughed, having taken in a lung-full of the dust that had resulted from the partially vaporized walls she had taken refuge behind. "What have you been creating in that lair of yours?!"

"Hextech Micro-Rockets," Emma responded helpfully. "They target the nearest living being and explode on impact."

She didn't have time for this shit.

When the android struck again, its hands lashing out almost too quickly for her eyes to follow, Vi vaulted over the wall and surged forward, the propulsion systems on her hextech gauntlets roaring beautifully as she spun upwards, delivering a powerful uppercut to the underside of the mechanism's jaw and knocking its head clean off of its shoulders; it fell to the ground with an earth-shaking '_thud' _and bounced a few times, leaving huge dents in the concrete.

Instantly, the body stilled and slumped forward, systems going offline as its main source of power was disconnected.

"There, see Em? Too easy."

"It was an unnecessary risk," Emma corrected. "This isn't the Rift. I think you forget that you can actually die here."

Like she could forget something like that.

"_Vi, where the hell are you?" _Caitlyn's voice asked suddenly.

The pinkette flinched. "Shit. On my way."

* * *

She was soaked and a bit worse for wear from her exchange, but Vi still made it to Caitlyn's office not even five minutes later.

The pinkette was about to barge in unannounced like she usually did when she caught sight of the sheriff's visitor sitting on the leather love seat across from the door: a lovely young woman with dark burgundy locks and dazzling green eyes was laughing at something, her full lips curved into an amused little smile that was tinged with mischief. Were those… Cat ears? Indeed they were. Crème-furred and pointed, they swiveled slightly, angling towards the door as if she knew someone was there.

From what Vi could see, she had quite the body on her and dressed up in that little school girl outfit…

'_Hot damn. Who the hell is that?' _

Raking a hand through her dripping hair, the Piltover Enforcer knocked sharply before entering, her gaze still locked on the new girl. "You called, boss?"

At her voice, the girl looked over, those electric green eyes locking with light blue. There was something familiar in them… Like coming back to an old haunt after being out of town for a while.

Caitlyn started to say something, but then she noticed the state of the bruiser's person and her tone changed completely. "What happened?"

"The usual Heimerdinger robot shit." The red-head chuckled at that, the sound airy (?) and enchanting, and the bruiser found herself wanting to hear more of it.

The sniper frowned. "You fought it."

"And won."

"Vi, there are procedures to follow. Do you have any idea how much paperwork you create?" As if on cue, a man in a dark blue uniform poked his head in the door and requested assistance; she gave both young women a warning look before she exited her office.

Leaving Vi with the random young woman who she assumed was her unexpected guest.

"I'm sorry, you are?"

"Annie Hastur." The Dark Child grinned. "Pleased to meet you."

Oh holy fucking—_no way_.

* * *

"I don't believe you."

This was the fifth time she had said it since giving Caitlyn some bullshit story about the girl being a relative visiting from the countryside and beating feet before the intuitive sniper could ask too any questions.

The girl arched an eyebrow, the corners of her full lips twitching as though she was resisting the urge to smile. "Why would I lie to you?"

"I dunno. You could be some sort of psychopath."

"And yet here you are: alone with me in a confined space, taking me to the place you call home."

Touché.

The pinkette scowled and turned her attention back to the road, having changed the driving system back to automatic in favor of trying to puzzle out her odd little visitor. The girl was, for the most part, quiet, her eyes wide as she gazed out at the towering, gleaming skyscrapers.

"What, you've never seen a city before?"

"Not like Piltover," she admitted. "My realm's focus was on the magical arts, so we weren't big on grandiose buildings and overly-complex mechanisms." She beamed. "This is my first time in a hover car. It's like something out of a science fiction novel."

Damn if that expression wasn't just adorable.

"I don't believe you," the bruiser repeated, more to convince herself that this stunning creature wasn't the brat she had snapped at only yesterday. There was no way she found the League's youngest mage attractive. "You're yankin' my chain."

"How would you like me to prove it to you?"

'_Hm.'_ "Where's that raggedy stuffed animal of yours?"

Her eyebrows drew together, that mischievous smile drooping a bit. "I lost him…"

In that moment, she sounded like a heartbroken child and Vi immediately wished she could reclaim the sentence.

Whoa, what was up with all this guilt shit?

"Er… Sorry."

Annie's expression brightened. "That's a good idea, though. Pull over."

"_Now_? It's kind of hellish out." The rain didn't show any signs of stopping and thunder rumbled ominously in the distance.

"I'll be fine."

The bruiser scoffed, but listed off to the side, out of the way of traffic. Not that anyone else was crazy enough to be on the road right now. She was about to pull forward more so that a low arching bridge would protect them from the elements, but the young woman was already unfastening her seatbelt and fiddling with the controls to unlock the door.

"Hey, wait a sec—"

The door swung open and Vi instinctively recoiled, preparing to be soaked for the millionth time that morning, but no sheet of water came. It took her a moment to realize that the droplets were vaporizing with an inaudible hiss the moment they came into proximity with the girl.

'_How is she…?' _

Annie climbed out of the passenger seat, steam rising from the pavement beneath her feet as she placed some distance between herself and the vehicle. When she stopped, she pirouetted gracefully, lifting a glowing hand into the air and waving at her pink-haired companion.

The fiery, shadowy silhouette of a bear warped the air behind her, looming over the frail girl with a terrifying growl and the bruiser nearly brained herself trying to get to her feet, having forgotten entirely that she was still sitting in her car. "Behind you, kid!"

The red-head turned around and the specter only grew larger. Was she blind? Why wasn't she running? "Tibbers, say hello."

'… _Tibbers.'_

As the creature roared, the pinkette found herself with a throbbing headache. There was no way in hell that this was actually happening. This had to be some sort of nightmare.

With that thought firmly in mind, the Piltover Enforcer snapped her eyes shut, inhaling deeply before she opened them: Annie was climbing calmly back into the hover car, still completely dry despite the raging elements.

"You…"

"Believe me now?"

"Okay, start from the beginning."

* * *

By the time the duo made it back to Vi's place, the sun had managed to struggle its way past the dark rain clouds that loomed forebodingly overhead, but the rain was still going strong.

Sometimes, the pinkette hated living at the highest point in the entire damn coastal nation. The whole borough, a platform roughly thirty miles across sitting atop a towering pillar that served as an enormous elevator to the levels between it and the ground, would probably be subjected to this weather for days even while the lower levels were drying out.

Emma flickered into existence the moment they stepped into the foyer and all of the lights turned on in a wave, bathing the penthouse in warm, low light. "Welcome back, madam."

"No more calls. I'm going back to bed." She rounded on Annie. "And you'd better behave yourself. I'll deal with you later."

She should have known better.

Upon waking a few hours later, Vi found herself face to face with the inquisitive young mage. How she had missed the weight of the younger woman's body over her own, she'd never know, but she was certainly noticing it _now_—in addition to the (unusual) warmth of her form and the softness of her skin.

Of all the days to go to sleep in a tank and shorts.

"Annie… The fuck?"

"I'm hungry," the red-head whined, pointed ears flicking backwards.

"Then go to the kitchen and get something to eat!" The bruiser sat up and immediately regretted the action as she found it shifted Annie into her lap, those long, bare legs flush against her own. "There's this thing called personal space, kid. Try it sometime."

"It's cute when you get all grumpy."

Where the hell had _that _come from? Vi wondered.

Annie grinned. "You only do it when something's embarrassing you. Am I making you uncomfortable?"

"Tch. Why would _you_ make me uncomfortable?" The red-head's expression became unreadable and she leaned in until they were almost nose-to-nose. It took all of Vi's will power not to flinch or break that electric gaze, her heart working away like a hextech-powered jackhammer inside of her chest. She swallowed, hard. "W-what?"

Goddamn that hitch in her voice.

"I'm hungry," she repeated, seemingly oblivious to the absolute havoc she was wreaking upon her hostess.

"Get the fuck up and go to the kitchen," the pinkette snapped, more upset at her body for reacting the way it was than anything.

"Vi." The spell-caster rested a hand on either of the Piltover Enforcer's shoulders, her eyes glittering dangerously as her lower lip protruded in a pout. It was then that the bruiser recognized the expression as what she called Annie's "princess look".

The Dark Child had no intention of getting up and getting her own food and she wasn't about to leave Vi alone until the older woman bent to her will.

As a child, the look typically didn't work unless the pinkette was feeling particularly generous.

As a full-bodied, fey-featured, school girl uniform-wearing young adult, however…

The bruiser groaned. "I'll make breakfast, okay? Just lemme up."

Instantly, the girl was bounding off, taking her curious heat with her, leaving a flabbergasted Vi to pinch the bridge of her nose and swear quietly under her breath. "I need to get my act together or she'll walk all over me."

"Curious," Emma chimed, appearing at the foot of her bed. "It seems this 'Annie' is _already_ walking all over you."

"Shut it." But there was no bite to the command, just resignation.

Out in the kitchen, Annie was spinning on a barstool at the granite counter, her eyes bright as she took in her surroundings.

'_Like a kid in a candy shop,' _the bruiser found herself thinking, amused.

"Your house is amazing, Vi."

She supposed she had grown used to the high-ceilinged rooms, shiny bronze and gold appliances, and modern decor over time, but to Annie this must have all been very grand.

"I'll give you the tour later, if you want." When the red-head's gaze brightened, her heart did that odd jackhammer impression again and the pinkette frowned. "By the way, this is Emma. Emma, Annie."

The A.I materialized on the stool next to her guest, legs crossed primly. "Charmed."

Annie's eyes widened. "Hello."

"She's like a digitalized personal assistant. She's a little nicer than Cait."

"Only a little?"

"Only a little."

Emma scoffed. "You wound me, madam."

The red-head laughed. "There's so much to see here. I feel as though there's no end to the surprises in the City of Progress."

"You get used to it." Vi stood on her tip-toes to open a cabinet high above her, reaching for the huge mixing bowl on the top shelf. "Speaking of which, how long is this visit going to last, anyway?"

The mage shrugged her shoulders. "I don't really have anywhere else to go, so…"

For fuck's sake. The girl couldn't mean—

"So you wanna stay here."

"Could I? Pretty please? I wouldn't be any trouble—you wouldn't even know I was here."

No, no, no. Absolutely not. There was no way in hell she was going to have a roommate and especially not the young pyromaniac-turned-woman by some mysterious dark power. Nuh-uh.

"Fuck that."

Annie pouted. "Be nice for once. I don't have a home to go to back in my world."

"Wait, so what've you been doing all this time?"

"I… "She hesitated. "Roamed the Rift. I don't need to sleep much so I explored when everyone was gone. There's only so much you can see before you've seen it all, though."

That sounded… Incredibly pathetic—both bleak and lonely. And those big green eyes were on her full force, rendering her incapable of turning the younger woman down. With a heartfelt sigh, Vi grumbled, "If you're going to stay here, you have to do what I say, when I say it. No 'but's. You step out of line and I'll kick you to the curb so fast you'll think you were hit by _Dragon's Rage._"

That slow, dazzling smile was blinding in its radiance and Vi felt as though maybe—just maybe—having Annie here with her would be a _good_ thing.

But immediately wanted to slap herself for thinking such a thing. What "good" could come from having this kid cramp her style? She loved living on her own, counting on no one but herself and caring for no one but herself. Why had she gone and said that—ruined the great thing she had going?

Wordlessly, the bruiser turned to the fridge to fetch breakfast ingredients, her brain reeling a bit from the speed at which her entire world had suddenly been rendered topsy-turvy. She scowled when she heard Emma snicker.

First those feelings of guilt and now this complete inability to say 'no' to the spell-caster.

'_What the fuck is going on with me?'_

**-End Chapter-**


	3. Rules are Meant to be Broken

_/ Flashback /_

**-Rules Are **_**Meant**_** to be Broken-**

Annie had been officially living with Vi for only an hour and a half before she had broken one of the three ground rules that the bruiser had laid down as conditions for their continued cohabitation.

"Old habits die hard," she supposed.

The rules were as follows:

No one was allowed in the house. No exceptions. She was not to answer the door at any point.

Personal space. Respect it or she'd get an ass whooping.

Absolutely no pyromagic was to be cast in proximity to any of Vi's belongings.

Now, she could understand the last two, but the first made the pinkette seem as though she was either avoiding someone… Or was an antisocial hermit while she was in her home world.

But now, after she had automatically answered the doorbell as courtesy dictated, she understood why the older woman had made that rule: she was in fact avoiding someone.

Probably several 'someone's, knowing her penchant for destruction.

"You're not Vi," Caitlyn said sharply, stepping past the girl without a word of greeting. She paused in the foyer to remove her hat, wet with rain, and drag a hand through her hair. "Where is she?"

"I don't know," she answered truthfully. The pinkette had grunted something about unfinished business to attend to half-way through breakfast before roaring out of there in her hover car. "She stepped out."

Dark brown eyes wandered critically over the room for a moment before the sheriff's eyebrows drew together. "Her A.I isn't here, so she isn't on the Rift. Just as I thought."

"Did you need her for something?"

The brunette rounded on Annie, eyes narrowing. "What did you say your name was?"

'_You aren't supposed to be here,' _a little voice at the back of her mind reminded her. It took quite a bit of magic to hop worlds the way she had—magic that only, say, a Summoner or a powerful dark mage possessed. Revealing who she was could get her kicked back to the Rift—or worse, Noxus—in a heartbeat.

"An…na—Anna. I'm Vi's… Cousin."

"From the country, right. I wasn't aware that she even had any family in Piltover's limits."

"I'm more of an old friend," the red-head explained, her mind working feverishly to come up with an adequate lie. "We grew up together."

The sniper arched an eyebrow at that. "So you were a vandal as well?"

Whoops. She had forgotten that the young woman had fallen in with a bad crowd during her youth. Might as well run with it. "I'm surprised she hasn't mentioned me."

"That madwoman doesn't like to talk about her past." Caitlyn sighed. "Do me a favour and keep her out of trouble. I'm having a hard time getting her to listen to me—not that that's anything new—and the city is starting to see her as a new super-powered threat to replace the crime that I only just managed to get under control."

She had heard that Caitlyn was "riding Vi's ass" for something or another, but she hadn't realized it was so important that the bruiser got her act together.

Her concern must have reflected in her expression because the Piltover Sheriff chuckled. "I'm sure she'll be fine. She's always had an amazing aptitude for working things out at the very last moment... I just don't want to see her getting into more trouble than she can handle."

"I'll look out for her," the mage promised.

"See that you do." With that, the sniper took her leave…

And now she had the entire place to herself.

The red-head skipped over to the sink and washed the breakfast dishes before wiping her hands on her skirt and beginning her exploration.

The foyer lead a short distance into the house before it widened a bit into a circular room that had a door to the coatroom on the right and a doorway on the left that lead into the living room. It was quite an impressive room: one wall consisted entirely of floor-to-ceiling glass windows while the others had been painted an earthy shade of brown. There was a white, leather, L-shaped couch sitting in an indent that had been cut out of the tiled floor in the middle of the room that had glass tables sitting on either side of it. Lamps with white lamp shades were mounted on the walls, each connected to a dimmer switch on the wall that allowed for atmospheric lighting.

But the thing that stood out most was the humongous flat screen on the wall opposite the window. Annie had never actually seen one before, but she had read about them and knew that this one wasn't the average size for a household. There were a bunch of gaming systems connected to it and an entire glass display case full of video games and movies built into the wall closest to it—Vi loved her entertainment, it seemed.

The kitchen, which was adjacent to the living room, was where the two had eaten breakfast that morning. It was connected to the dining room, a medium-sized room designed to hold a small group of a dozen or so friends. There was a long wooden table that had been stained a dark brown and the light fixture, an ornate chandelier-esque lamp hanging from the ceiling, was brass. The walls were an off-white and the thick carpet beneath her feet was pitch black.

She had to wonder if Vi had decorated herself. The place wasn't anything like what Annie had envisioned… But then again, she couldn't really say what she would have imagined the bruiser's home to be like before this. Not this simple elegance, at any rate.

A hallway towards the rear of the kitchen split off in three directions: if you went straight, you came to a terrace which afforded a bird's-eye view of the entire city; to the right was the master bedroom (it was locked, Annie found) and master bathroom as well as the guest bedroom where Annie now stayed; to the left was the guest bathroom and beyond that Vi had renovated what was likely two more bedrooms, knocking down the wall that separated them, into a home gym. There was a boxing ring in one corner and a set of weights lined against the far wall. There was also a mysterious tall, thin metal case that had a single window towards the front, but Annie couldn't see anything when she peered inside.

"I'd wondered where you had wandered off to," Emma said, appearing in the doorway and scaring the mage half to death. She smiled. "Apologies, I keep forgetting to announce myself. Miss Vi will be arriving shortly and would likely appreciate it if you were to greet her. She has taken quite a shine to you." The A.I's tone was knowing, but before Annie could ask what it meant, the hologram flickered and faded.

Shrugging off the niggling curiosity, the red-head made a dash for the door, crashing into Vi with a flying hug the moment the young woman walked through the door and nearly knocking her over.

She had forgotten that they were almost the same height now.

Like Caitlyn, the pinkette was wet from the rain, and she smelled faintly of sweat and motor oil. Before she realized what she was doing, Annie nuzzled into the taller woman's throat, genuinely happy to see her.

Which was odd considering the fact that she hadn't been gone for very long…

The bruiser stiffened and prodded her away, her gaze pointedly elsewhere. "Personal space, kid."

Rule two. Right.

Her tone was curt, but there was a hint of something else there—was the pinkette… flustered? "Anything happen while I was gone?"

Whoops. "Um… Caitlyn came by."

A groan and clear blue eyes finally shifted to the mage. "What'd I tell you about answering the goddamn door, Annie? Cait's got a total hard-on for bugging the shit out of me and you let her in here?"

"Sorry, sorry! I forgot, okay? And she was going to beat down the door anyway."

Vi shook her head and shed her wet coat, dropping it carelessly to the wood floor in the middle of the walkway.

"You'll damage the floor," Emma chastened, materializing next to the door with a scowl on her face that was decidedly Caitlyn. The red-head quickly scooped it up and hung it on the peg that the pinkette had ignored. Her own sweater vest was already hung on the one next to it. "Thank you, Annie."

"Yeah, yeah. What'd the boss want anyway?"

_/ "The city is starting to see her as a new super-powered threat to replace the crime that I only just managed to get under control." /_

"Where did you go?" the spell-caster asked, not quite ready to open that can of worms.

"We had to acquire more rations as the number of mouths to feed has doubled."

"Yeah, and you eat like a friggin star athlete," Vi added. She had watched the young woman down an entire stack of flapjacks that morning with a stunned expression on her face. "I'm gonna have to make you get a job or something if you're gonna keep inhaling all my food like that."

She grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, this body burns a lot of energy. And money isn't an issue… As the last remaining Hastur, I inherited a substantial sum."

Vi arched an eyebrow. "This is the first I'm hearing of it."

Annie shrugged. "I have no real need for money."

"What's your end of Valoran like, anyway? I've never been all the way over there."

Well, that was to be expected considering travelling between places the normal way was both costly and time-consuming, full of unnecessarily strict security procedures. Powerful, invisible barriers had been erected between the major city-states of Piltover, Noxus, and Demacia and their surrounding territories about the time the Institute started seeking out warriors with the hopes of lessening the strife between Champions while in their original worlds.

A mischievous smile curved the red-head's lips and she couldn't help the giggle that spilled out of her. "Why don't I just show you?"

"Not like we can just 'poof' and be… there…" The bruiser trailed off as she realized that they were no longer standing in the well-lit foyer of her penthouse but in the stone archway of what appeared to be a cathedral. The air was chilly and thick with the smell of freshly baked bread and soot. "What the fuck? How did you—"

This sleepy little hamlet was what remained of the Gray Order's exodus many years prior.

"Welcome to my home town."

* * *

Hopping through the barriers that separated Valoran's different areas was easy once you got used to it. It was kind of like leaping between two points where point B looked as though you wouldn't be able to reach it, complete with the sense of accomplishment (and relief) once you actually made it.

Unfortunately, the initial "jump" took a lot of energy and Annie found herself staggering, leaning heavily against the cold stone wall for support.

"You alright, kid?"

She nodded, short of breath. She had made the trip just fine on her own before during the test run of her new powers… Perhaps taking another with her was asking too much.

"What are you two doing here?" a new voice asked. The speaker, a rather young woman dressed in traditional black spell-caster's robes and a pointed hat, frowned suspiciously, her long brown hair tied up in pig tails. There was a polished wooden staff strapped across her back. "I don't recall ever seeing you before and this is a tiny town."

Oh right, she wasn't in her original form.

Before she could say anything, however, her stomach lurched and she swayed and would have fallen had Vi not been there to steady her. "My friend's a little green around the gills. You mind if we take this interrogation back to your place?" the pinkette asked.

Annie didn't hear the girl's response; there was a dull roaring in her ears as her vision spun and went black.

…

When she opened her eyes some time later, the Dark Child found herself staring at an unfamiliar thatched ceiling. Her stomach roiled again and she sat bolt upright, swinging her legs over the side of the bed she was lying on.

She wasn't going to make it outside—

Vi wordlessly handed the young woman a basin, frowning when the red-head emptied her stomach's contents into it. She expected disgust, but the bruiser only asked, "You sure you're alright, kid?"

"Yes, I'm fine. I just… Shouldn't have brought you here like that."

"I didn't even know you could. Though I guess that explains how you got to Piltover in the first place." She took the basin from Annie, rising from the chair she had dragged over to the girl's bedside—had she been waiting there the entire time?—and made to leave the room. "I'll be right back."

The red-head sighed and rested her head in her hands, her elbows on her knees. "Stupid," she muttered. "Now Vi's gonna think I'm gross."

For some reason, the thought really bothered her.

"Our new friend says you can stay here for as long as you need," Vi said, reentering the room with the now empty container. "You might wanna keep this close in case you get sick again.

"Thank you…" The hand that was rested briefly, comfortingly, on her shoulder made her cheeks heat and she scolded herself inwardly for being such a child. There was no reason for her to get all googly-eyed over the pinkette's concern for her—rare though it was. None at all. "Sorry for this."

"No prob. It'll be an adventure, I guess." She grinned, that cocky grin very much at home on her face, and the mage was struck by how pretty the bruiser was when her eyebrows weren't drawn together in a displeased scowl. "Is there something on my face?"

Crap, she had been staring. By now, her cheeks were a bright shade of red, she could just feel it. "N-no, sorry. I was thinking that I should give you a tour around my world. This village is one of the smaller ones so it's kind of… Old fashioned. We have cities like Piltover, only they're run by magic rather than machines."

"You should probably just rest for now."

"Yes, you should." The Champions looked up to see their hostess entering the room, sans her weapon and hat. "Now perhaps you'll answer my question from earlier. I don't sense any magic at all from _you_—" She looked to Vi. "—but this young lady is practically bursting with it. And dark magic at that." Steel-toned eyes narrowed. "There's only one family in this town that uses dark magic and they disappeared over a year ago. Just who are you?"

"You must be referring to _my _family. I'm the daughter of Gregori and Amoline—Annie Hastur." She offered her hand to shake, but the young woman was curtsying, her gaze now on the floor.

"A thousand pardons, my lady. My name is Tessa. I had thought that it was you, but you've… grown."

"'My lady'?" she heard Vi mutter incredulously.

"No need for that," the red-head said uncomfortably. "Please, I'm a mage just like you."

"Hardly!" the brunette laughed. "And coming from a family as powerful as yours, it's only natural that people acknowledge you." Her expression became serious. "I'm so sorry about what happened to your parents."

The last remaining Hastur blinked. "Oh… Thank you."

"Still, it's good to see that you're okay. Where have you been all this time? What have you been up to? And who's your friend? She doesn't appear to be from around here."

That was a long story that she really didn't feel like explaining. Civilians were unaware of the combat the chosen few from each city-state, continent, and in some cases, other universes, had become embroiled in. By now, the young woman was starting to feel a little overwhelmed by the attention she was receiving.

"I think you should go start dinner like you mentioned earlier," Vi interrupted. Annie shot her an appreciative look and she shrugged nonchalantly, herding the other woman out of the room. "I can tell you all about the little lady's adventures over some grub."

As their footsteps faded, Annie rose and went over to the window. She opened it and stuck her head out, breathing in the crisp night air.

It was good to be home, if only because Vi was there with her.

* * *

Vi had never been on horseback before, Annie could tell from the tight grip that was around her waist. It became a little tighter each time the terrain became particularly jarring.

"Vi… You're going to break a rib." Though… Having the bruiser pressed close to her like this was well worth it.

"Sorry." Her hold slackened and the mage was able to breathe again. "We don't really have any use for these things back where I'm from, so I never bothered to try riding one."

"Horses are the main means of transportation in the smaller villages."

They had rented this one, a bay Clydesdale with white markings about its face and hooves, from a stable that Tessa had directed them to after they had eaten. The Green Witch, a class of spell-casters known for their potions and salves, had bombarded them with questions throughout the meal, some of which Annie answered while the rest were up to Vi.

She had given them rations for the trip and a bit of coin, insisting that she was just honored to have met a Hastur and that there was no need to repay her.

_/ "And Lady Hastur?"_

"_Yes?"_

"_You may want to tone down those powers of yours. They're bound to attract attention." As if to prove her point, a horse that had been tethered outside whinnied, its ears flicking back, the whites of its eyes the size of dinner plates as it tried to back away from the young mage. "The Hastur name is well respected for what they did with the Grey Order, but you know how spell-casters are… Always looking to test the limits of their powers."_

"_I will. Thank you. For everything."_

_Tessa waved away her sentiment, pulling from the pocket of her robe a little glass phial. "Take this with you just in case. It has powerful healing properties for all manner of illness—magical or otherwise."_

"_You're too kind," Annie murmured. She had forgotten what it was like to interact with other spell-casters who weren't trying to kill you or were too focused on trying to kill others. _

"_Congratulations on finding someone, by the way," Tessa added cheerfully. _

"'_F-finding someone'?!"_

_She nodded. "Vi, was it? The two of you seem very happy together. It's important for a mage to find the right partner."_

_Annie flushed several shades of crimson. "W-we're nothing like that!"_

"_Oh really? One would have to be blind to not see the way you look at her." /_

While that may have been true… _'There's no way Vi would feel the same,'_ Annie thought sourly._ 'I'm still just a kid to her.'_

Perhaps she wouldn't be keeping this form after all. The charm would lose its strength and wear off eventually.

"Anyone in there?" Knuckles tapped softly against the side of the girl's head, shaking her from her dejected pondering. "You've got this scary expression on your face. Do you sense trouble or something?"

As if on cue, their steed reared, a shrill sound leaving it, and Annie made out vague humanoid shapes in the distance. It took a moment for her to recognize the blood-red banner that soared above their heads: Noxians.

They were near the main city and this platoon was likely on patrol for outsiders.

People like Vi.

Annie swore and kicked the horse into a gallop, wincing as the pinkette yelped and latched onto her waist with bruising force.

"Hey, you're gonna knock me off!"

"Sorry."

A hunting horn sounded and a magical projection of the squad leader shimmered in the air next to them, easily keeping pace with the animal. "Halt. You're in Noxian territory. No one enters the city limits without passing inspection."

"No thank you," she chirped, jerking on the reigns so that the horse leapt over a shallow rut. "We'll just be leaving now."

"If you do not stop, you will be detained. You have been warned."

As the projection faded, Annie sensed a surge of energy behind them and she ducked instinctively, reaching behind her and yanking Vi down by her collar moments before a bolt of electricity struck the trunk of a tree before them with a sharp _'crack' _and sent it toppling to the ground.

They were aiming to kill, not capture.

"The fuck's going on?" Vi groaned. "All this jostling makes me want to ralph."

"Not right now, you won't. Those are Noxians—I almost forgot that they control all of the larger city-states across the eastern coast… That and they're extremely xenophobic."

The pinkette stared at her blankly. "Why exactly are we running?"

"They're trying to kill us!"

Another bolt of lightning; the horse veered sharply and Vi was thrown to the ground, swearing as she tumbled. When she came to a stop a few feet later, she rose and smashed her fist into her palm, azure eyes narrowed as she rounded on the approaching riders.

"Who wants to die first?"

"Vi, don't be stupid!" Annie yelled, wheeling her mount around to face the oncoming threat as well. "We have to get out of here."

"Fuck. That." The bruiser twisted her vambraces, her gauntlets returning to full size in a flare of white-blue light and the whirring of machinery. And just in time: another bolt seared the air, striking the back of the fists she had crossed in front of her to deflect the blow. The energy fizzled uselessly and dispelled into little crackles of static. "You've got five seconds to get the hell out of my face before I kill the lot of you."

A ripple of laughter went through the platoon as they drew their horses to a halt, surrounding the duo. The leader, a bulky man with the Noxian emblem splayed across the breast plate of his armor, sitting astride a white horse, scoffed. "This is why we don't let outsiders in—they're all crazy bitches."

"Wrong answer."

Before Annie could plead with her again, the warrior was in motion, hurtling through the air towards the general. A spell-caster to his right cast another volley of lightning, but she charged right through it, knocking the man off his steed with a powerful uppercut; her body blurred and she appeared above him in mid-air, one giant gauntlet drawn back—

"Get dunked!"

—The blow sent the man crashing into the earth with enough force to create a crater; the impact sent out a shockwave that spooked the other horses and they bolted, some with their riders still astride them and others without.

Annie blinked, stunned by the brutality and swiftness with which the fighter had taken out a priority target. She supposed that was why the pinkette was such a terror to ADCs. "Wow…"

"You were saying?" Vi smirked, rolling her shoulders as her gauntlets deconstructed themselves into their smaller form. "Now let's get your money so we can get out of here. I'm starting to feel like breaking shit."

x-x-x

Vi marched right past the gate, pulling the high collar of her jacket up closer to her face.

No sense in dallying here. They had to get in and out of the city before the platoon managed to pull itself together and sound the alarm.

She really should have cracked some more heads open.

The pinkette turned to face Annie who had been moving rather sluggishly since dismounting the beast that, admittedly, had had its uses.

After all, what other chance would she have gotten to have the full curve of the young mage's rather supple rear pressed into her pelvis?

The memory of the sensation sent Vi's mind swan-diving into the gutters and she shook her head, a helpless little smile curving her lips. The pinkette had a healthy sense of… _appreciation_ for the female form.

Damn if Annie didn't have a body—"dat ass" as it was said on the Rift.

A yelp of pain shook the bruiser from her thoughts and Vi started forward immediately, catching the red-head before she slumped to the ground. "Annie…? Annie!"

There was that flip-flopping sensation in her stomach again. This time, it was combined with a tightening in her throat and chest and it made for an appalling response that she wasn't used to (nor would she ever be)—concern. The pinkette quickly lifted the shorter woman and hustled her over to an abandoned vendor's stall, out of the way of any foot traffic, and lowered her gently into a sitting position behind the counter.

The spell-caster stirred, eyelids fluttering. "… ther…"

"What?"

Her eyes opened, electric green locking with azure, and Vi's heart missed an entire beat. "Feather," she repeated, louder this time.

The woman's eyebrows drew together. _'"Feather?" What in the world is she talking abou— '_

It was then that her gaze dropped to the breast of the girl's sweater vest and she saw the pristine white feather pinned there. It was smoking slightly and giving off little tendrils of dark energy.

"Unpin… Please." It seemed to take a lot of effort for her to speak and her jaw was clenched.

The Dark Child was clearly in pain, but the bruiser still hesitated. She felt her cheeks go red for the first time in years as she balked.

'_Fuck.'_

The pin was the problem—or rather, what lay _beneath_ it was. It was a standard safety pin deal where she would have to unbutton and slip her hand into Annie's blouse so that she would have access to the back to unpin the trinket.

That wouldn't have been a big deal… Had Annie been wearing a bra.

Apparently the charm that Morgana had given her didn't include one in addition to her magical, growing clothes. Brilliant. It was a detail that she had noticed at the house (and quite a bit during their rather rough horseback ride) but had avoided bringing up with the intent of finding a better time to approach the subject. With… assets as large as hers, it would be imperative to acquire some form of, er, support for them.

But now, it appeared she had run out of time.

"_Vi."_

'_Fuck…!'_

Why exactly was this making her freak out so badly? So _what_if she happened to brush against the creamy swell of flesh she had caught a glimpse of earlier when she had been enthusiastically greeted that morning? A single glimpse that had, admittedly, made her rather debauched imagination add on details—completing the image as though the mage's body was a jigsaw puzzle.

This was Annie, for fuck's sake. You know, the brat who made a nuisance of herself by demanding the bruiser's attention and sulking when she didn't receive it?

Little Annie Hastur—the twerp who she sometimes wanted to launch across the Fields of Justice.

But despite knowing all of that, Vi found herself hesitating.

This was Annie… And she had no business eyeing a little girl the way she was. Magical charm that miraculously aged her or no, that was still wrong.

… Right?

It was really fucking irritating how she had suddenly developed a conscience. Maybe Morg's spell was powerful enough to have an effect on people who came into contact with the Dark Child as well. Yeah, that had to be it.

The spell-caster in question released a pained whimper and the bruiser sighed and reached out to unbutton the front of her puffy-sleeved blouse.

'_Suck it up.'_

The backs of her fingers did in fact brush against warm skin as she hastily undid the pin and pulled the feather free, a scowl forming when she realized how ridiculous she had been. "There. Better?"

Annie nodded and, suddenly, her body was enveloped in a smoldering light, her form shrinking. When the light faded, the all-too familiar magenta-haired girl was standing before her, right as rain.

"There's a really strong spell shield." She pointed beyond Vi, back in the direction they had come from. "You didn't feel it because you don't use magic, I guess." She plucked the charm from the bruiser's fingers and Vi started, an electric tingle shooting down her arm from the point where their bare skin touched. "Morgana's gonna be mad… It fried her enchantment. But that's okay. You can play with me in this form, too!"

Guilt flooded the pinkette and she looked down at the cobblestones beneath her feet. This was the same person she had been ogling not even a minute before. What the fuck was wrong with her?

"C'mon, Vi!" the Dark Child chirped, already darting off, between the swell of passerby that had suddenly exited a fancy looking building with stained glass windows across the street from the vacant stands.

She would lose the lithe little mage easily if she didn't keep up; the Piltover Enforcer rose to her feet and hustled after Annie.

* * *

The young woman had been accurate in her assessment that the mages' city was like Piltover: huge buildings hovered on either side of the cobblestone streets, whether by wings or by glowing magical energies, and there were all manner of people bustling between them. Some flew on _broomsticks_ of all things while still others rode astride a variety of great and fearsome beasts.

It was quite an amazing spectacle, but there was no time to gawk; Noxian soldiers were patrolling the streets, their armor glinting in the sunlight. One looked directly at Vi and turned to say something to his companion, pointing.

The pinkette hunched her shoulders and hastily changed directions, hugging the wall of the alley she had seen Annie duck down and coming to what appeared to be a cellar door.

"Annie…!" Vi hissed, poking her head into the dim room. The interior was nothing like what she had expected: each wall was lined with shelves that towered over her at the same height one of the smaller skyscrapers in Piltover would have and she craned her neck, honestly impressed by the dimensions of the structure. Apparently the city hadn't only grown skyward, it had expanded beneath the earth's crust as well. Every shelf was packed with books—some thick, some thin; some worn, some not; some tall, some short—and there was a weird sort of cauldron in the center of the hexagonal room that gave off a dull red glow that served as the only source of light.

It was really fucking quiet and that was beginning to freak the bruiser out.

She heard a giggle somewhere to her left and, suddenly, the room was bathed in light: there was a narrow hallway sandwiched between two shelves that the pinkette hadn't noticed in the gloom and she caught sight of a flash of purple as Annie disappeared down it.

"Damn kid," she grumbled, quickly following suit.

The next room was hexagonal as well, and it occurred to Vi that the building was laid out like a honeycomb. There were more gargantuan book shelves as well, but instead of a cauldron there were leather sofas strung without rhyme or reason across the floor.

Annie was sitting on one of them, kicking her feet as she stared up at the ceiling. "I come here all the time."

The admission caught the bruiser off guard. "I thought you said you didn't come to your world much?"

She shook her head vehemently. "No, I just don't go to my hometown. I read a lot, though, so the library is my home." She patted the seat next to her, grinning. "I've read aaaaall the books in this room."

"Holy shit…" Vi exclaimed softly, her footsteps impossibly loud as she crossed the room. There had to be several thousand books lining its walls. How old was the girl again, eight?

Annie giggled. "I'm smarter than you think I am, Vi." Her bottom lip protruded a bit in a pout. "Smarter than most of you grown-ups in the League think I am."

"I've never thought you were stupid, kid." Just a little foolhardy at times, but she didn't say that aloud.

"Good." The mage smirked, that mischievous light in bright green eyes serving to make the bruiser shift uncomfortably as her stomach flip-flopped. How could someone so young give such a... _provocative_ look? "I've learned a lot from reading."

"I'm sure you have…" She leaned against the arm of the sofa, willing her brain to behave. There was no way that suggestive tone in the girl's voice meant anything and, even if it did, there was no way that she was even remotely interested in any sort of suggestions Annie could have. "We should get out of here soon."

"Aww… But I'm having fun!"

"Did you forget why we came to your world in the first place?" It was meant to be a rhetorical question, but the blank look she received made Vi groan. "Seriously, kid?"

"I'm not a kid!"

"Tch. Well right now you are and you're certainly acting like one."

Annie scowled, but quieted. "I remember. We're here to get my inheritance."

Thank goodness for that. "Great. Is there a bank or something around here?"

"I didn't put it in a bank, silly."

'_Okay…'_ "So where exactly is it?"

"This way!" With that exclamation, the little girl was on the move again, threading her way through the cluster of furniture and exiting the room through a doorway that Vi certainly wouldn't fit through unless she crouched.

Of fucking course.

On the other side of the door was a narrow staircase that wound its way downward, into the bowels of the earth. Vi took the stairs two at a time and soon she could see a landing made of sediment.

…

Upon exiting the stairwell and finally catching up to Annie, the first thing Vi noticed was the massive, skeletal beast that, even curled up as it was, dominated the far end of the vast underground cavern.

A thunderous sound left it and it took the bruiser a moment to realize that the creature was snoring—a rumbling, guttural noise that reverberated through her very bones. This wasn't the Rift. That thing could easily snap the two of them up and that would be it. Game over.

The pinkette was about to voice that fun fact when she realized that the mage was no longer beside her and was marching off resolutely in the direction of the slumbering monstrosity; she made a grab for the collar of the girl's blouse, intending to yank her back by it like a mother cat would a kitten, but her fingertips only grazed the sheer fabric as the mage leaped forward.

It was then that Vi noticed that the floor with the exception of where she was standing, the platform the beast snored peacefully from, and the path of stepping stones made from fragments of solid rock, was covered with bubbling lava. Actually, she noticed the intense heat before she even registered the glow of the embers—it was a billion fucking degrees down there.

"_Annie…!" _she hissed, not really wanting to become dinner.

The Dark Child turned her head to look at the bruiser over her shoulder, expression deadly serious as she lifted her index finger to her lips. Under any other circumstance, Vi would have taken her head off for shushing her. As it was, the pinkette pursed her lips and crossed her arms over her chest.

The kid was batshit for both heading _toward _the creature and for doing so as though she was playing an innocent game of hopscotch.

At one point, a particularly adventurous leap ended in a shaky landing and the mage teetered precariously, thrusting her arms out in an attempt to regain her balance. The girl had Vi shitting bricks, her heart hammering too loudly in her ears, until she managed to right herself and leap forward again, nimble as a goat.

Her heart wasn't capable of handling this much stress—it just wasn't. It didn't help that the bruiser had never been this concerned about the wellbeing of another person before… Not even Caitlyn, now that she thought about it.

Why was that?

A few more leaps and Annie was standing on the edge of the circular platform before the beast, her tiny frame dwarfed by its massive proportions.

Wait, what was she—

Vi's jaw dropped as the girl waltzed right up and grabbed hold of one of the huge paws the sleeping giant had its broad head propped up on with both hands, putting all of her weight into it as she tried to pull the appendage aside.

Okay, so maybe Annie _was _stupid. Or that could just be the batshit crazy from earlier.

The paw shifted slightly, then popped loose and two things happened: the bruiser's breath caught in her throat as that colossal head dipped, a great maw opening and releasing a gout of flame and Annie fell to her rump just out of the way.

Holy shit, the girl was going to be the death of her.

"Found it!" the magenta-haired mage announced, holding up something shiny that she had bent down and scooped up from the newly vacated spot on the floor. She seemed to have forgotten what she was standing next to and she simply laughed at Vi's disbelieving expression, pocketing the thing and heading back across the platforms.

When she was in front of her companion once again, she tugged at the lacy bit of cloth that peeked out under the corset-like top the bruiser wore, green eyes wide and pleading. "Vi…"

Fuck, she knew that look.

_/ __"Vi." The spell-caster rested a hand on either of the Piltover Enforcer's shoulders, her eyes glittering dangerously as her lower lip protruded in a pout. /_

Even in this form, it was incredibly effective and the pinkette groaned. "What is it?"

"Can we keep him?"

"… What?"

She pointed behind her, at the still-slumbering beast. "My parents left him here to guard important documents but when they had to leave, they couldn't take him with them. He's been down here all alone for years, just waiting for someone to claim him."

"So let someone else claim him," Vi grunted. "I'm not supposed to have animals in my flat anyway, much less monsters."

"Fenrir isn't a monster," Annie insisted. "And he's really friendly when he isn't guarding something—look!"

Before Vi could even think to protest, the mage stuck her thumb and pointer finger in her mouth and gave a shrill whistle. Immediately, two burning red spheres flickered to life where the creature's eye sockets were and it sat up, its frame becoming engulfed with flames that danced in the approximate form of a wolf.

A _flaming_ skeleton… that breathed. Magic really made no friggin sense.

Apparently it could bark too, despite lacking the necessary airways and it did so, the sound loud enough to shake stalagmites free from the high ceiling. Then the thing was in motion, soaring over the gap towards the Champions in one giant bound, and Vi instinctively scrambled backwards, grabbing Annie's arm and pulling her behind her when the girl didn't make any effort to move out of the way.

Fenrir shrunk down to about the size of a lion just before reaching the girls, but Vi could still feel the rush of heated air that had resulted from its original size and speed rush past them as the creature sat, tail wagging.

Annie pulled free of her grip and ran forward, throwing her arms around that flaming neck as though it was nothing. "Please, Vi? Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease?"

The pooch… thing whined and the pinkette found herself caught between two imploring stares, one of which she apparently could _not _say 'no' to.

Honestly, what the actual fuck was wrong with her?

**-End Chapter-**

Vi's family is expanding! Let me know what you think.


	4. Speed Demon

Hrm… It appears that I have lied. Not intentionally, mind you, but my brain just doesn't want to leave the _League of One-shots_ I've started alone. Heh. That being said, I think my next few will be very slashy—not quite the level of citrus I've been presenting in my other one-shots… Still fun, though :D

**-Speed Demon (Or… Just "demon," really)-**

The feather's spell had been badly damaged, but there was still just enough magic to allow Annie to amplify it with her own powers, enabling travel between Valoran and Runeterra one more time.

The Fallen Angel was easy to find, as powerful a presence her magic possessed, and the girl automatically locked on to its position and ended up in Morgana's living room like she had the first time.

… Only, this time, the purple-haired sorceress was actually there and she wasn't alone.

Kayle was the first to notice Annie and something wicked glinted in those cerulean orbs as her fingers worked tirelessly between her sister's legs. She was crouched over the mage who lay on her back on the shaggy rug in front of the fireplace, her hair a golden curtain that blocked the creamy swells of her breasts from Annie's view. She didn't stop what she was doing—in fact, her actions sped up, drawing a low, throaty sound from the spell-caster below her that made Annie's face flame and goosebumps spread over her skin.

"You have a guest, sister," the Judicator husked, brushing her lips against the ashen woman's pointed ear as she spoke.

A pleased mewl left Morgana and she didn't seem to register the statement as she reached up, looping her arms around Kayle's neck and crushing their lips together, muffling a wordless cry of ecstasy.

It was only when the blonde pulled away and very pointedly looked in Annie's direction that the Fallen Angel seemed to notice the other Champion's presence; when she clamped her thighs together and attempted to shift away from her older sister, lips drawn back in a displeased snarl, Kayle chuckled and nipped at the sensitive skin of her throat, her fingers working in earnest.

The expression faded just as quickly as it had come, glowing purple eyes rolling back in her head as the dark sorceress moaned.

"You've gotten even tighter, my dear," Kayle purred. "Could it be that you_ like_ being watched?"

Annie found that she couldn't look away, nor could she believe her ears. Who knew the prim and proper blonde had such a sinful side?

"No…" Morgana hissed, her claws finding purchase along the other woman's spine, drawing a surprised moan from her.

The Judicator smiled, stilling her motions. "No?"

"Sister," Morgana groaned, one clawed hand closing around her wrist and forcing her fingers deeper. "More…"

"But little Annie will see."

At her name, the young mage started guiltily, that blush working its way across her shoulders. This wasn't the first time she had encountered such a thing—the library had an extensive collection of romance novels that she had worked her way through overtime, curiosity fueling her to learn more about the act. This was, however, the first time she had actually been able to see the curvaceous, entwined bodies of the lovers or hear the wanton moans of pleasure and the wet sound of Kayle's fingers filling Morgana.

She'd be lying if she said that she didn't want to experience it for herself and her diminutive body felt curiously warm.

"Do not tease me," Morgana snapped, rolling her hips, her thighs parting invitingly.

Kayle heeded the silent invitation, her fingers once again working sweetly between slick folds until, with a loud, guttural sound and a surge of ashen curves, the Fallen Angel reached orgasm. The blonde immortal gave her lover one last lingering kiss before she rose, lifting her slim fingers to her lips and sucking the evidence of her sister's arousal from them, her eyes heavy lidded.

"Make haste," she advised Annie, her feathers brushing against the mage's arm as she strode by her. "I am not yet sated."

There was a threatening tone underlying the statement and the Dark Child nodded as a chill ran the length of her spine in response. For some reason, Kayle gave off the impression that she was capable of more violence than even her wicked younger sister.

Morgana sat up, her wings curling around her to shield her body from view as she glared over her shoulder at the young spell-caster. There was less venom in the look than usual—an aftereffect of her recent activity. "What is it _now_?"

x-x-x

"Fenriiiiiir!" Annie's ears twitched as she attempted to locate the hound. "Come on, Fen, we have to go!"

There was scrabbling somewhere to their left, a forewarning of the silver-furred Husky that came tearing down the hallway and Vi swore just before the beast leaped at her, giant paws braced on her leg, tongue out, tail wagging merrily.

"This fucking thing…"

"He likes you!"

"Too damn much." The bruiser shoved the animal away and the glamor spell on the spiked collar around its throat shifted so that it now resembled a stocky Rottweiler. "Is it going to keep doing that?"

"_He,_" Annie corrected. "He's trying to figure out what kind of dog you like."

Fenrir barked, his physical appearance changing to that of a Chihuahua.

Vi grimaced distastefully. "I don't like dogs. And how can an animated_ skeleton_ have a gender?!"

The young woman shrugged. "Do you like cats?"

In response to the question, Fenrir released a mewl, his body shrinking down into the form of a tortoise hair tabby.

The pinkette blinked, surprised. "What else can that thing transform into?"

"Um… Anything, really."

"Huh. Even a person?"

Instantly, the cat's form wavered, looming over both girls, and warping into a lanky young man with long white hair, the rounded ears of a dog poking out of it. He grinned happily and Vi quickly threw her hand in front of Annie's eyes to hide his nudity, blurting, "Actually, a cat's great!"

Fenrir frowned curiously, but didn't morph into something else this time, his tail swishing behind him.

"Fuck's sake… Um, Fenrir, cat. _Now_."

Obediently, the young man changed forms, and soon, a fluffy white Siamese mewled up at them from the floor.

Vi released a sigh of relief and removed her hand, giving the creature a suspicious look as Annie kneeled down to scoop it up. She set it down on the wooden countertop meant for keys and the like, commanding, "Guard," and the cat froze like a statue, eyes going from icy blue to an eerie crimson.

"Creepy."

Emma, who hadn't made a peep since the two had shown up with the beast, peeked her head around the corner of the doorway to the living room. "… Is it gone?"

"You'll have to get used to it, Em. The kid insists on keeping it here."

The A.I scowled. "I shall do no such thing!"

"Hey, suit yourself. Come on, Annie."

"W-wait, you're leaving it _here?_"

"Yup." The bruiser cackled, genuinely amused by the displeased look on the brunette's face. "Have fun!"

The two stepped out into the afternoon sun, Emma locking the door behind them with a _'click'_, and Vi hit a button on the shiny keys in her hand, summoning her car from the parking garage that ran under the floating borough. She glanced thoughtfully at her companion as it pulled up in front of them. "You wanna drive?"

She gasped. "Can I?"

"Sure. It's easy."

And if anything, Emma could forcibly take control of the vehicle and save them from certain disaster.

Vi handed the young woman her keys and slid into the passenger seat.

That was her first mistake.

The moment the Dark Child sat in the driver's seat, the engine roared without any sort of input from the gas pedal and the pinkette just barely managed to fasten her seatbelt before the hover car was in motion, the world outside of the windows blurring into a mass of gold and blue.

The mage took to driving like a fish to water, her nimble fingers flying over the controls. "Where are we going?"

The bruiser tightened her grip on the inner door handle, reaching out her free hand to flip a switch on the dashboard that activated the navigation system. "We should probably turn that thing you gave me into the local currency. City Hall, Em."

The miniature version of the A.I appeared on the dashboard, legs crossed over the edge. "Take the first left, Annie."

The mage did so, not bothering to slow, and Vi found herself pressed into the seat by their momentum.

"This is fun," she chirped.

"Yeah… Just be careful." The bruiser turned the antiquated coin over in her fingers, curious as to how one thin piece of metal could make up the mage's entire inheritance. There was an odd crest on one side—a vague silhouette of some winged beast within a crescent moon—and an 'H' in flowing cursive on the other. "How come you know how to drive this thing?"

"Driver's manual and schematics in the Noxian library. They collect a lot of information on the surrounding city-states that they intend to subjugate at some point."

"Oh fun."

"There is a roadblock being erected on 46th street," Emma said suddenly. "Rerouting."

"What, again?"

"Construction is in effect until tomorrow evening. You can take the overpass to 7th or you can make a U-turn and return to the highway."

"Ugh. Which is faster?" It was then that the bruiser realized that Annie had accelerated, a grin spreading across her face. "Um… Kid?"

The aforementioned roadblock—a series of metal bars welded together with an electrical current running between them—came into view and the girl showed no signs of slowing. Before Vi could comment, the frame _melted_, flames appearing along its borders and cutting through it like a knife through butter, and the electricity fizzled out; the car went soaring through, shuddering as the magnetic grid that made up the roadway below weakened.

And still the odometer didn't drop below 100mph.

"Continuing on this route isn't advisable," Emma said. Even she sounded nervous.

"City Hall, right?" There was something unsettling about the energy that burned in the mage's eyes. "That's that huge cluster of buildings in the distance."

"Yeah…"

"I know a shortcut."

Annie reached under the steering wheel and pressed the switch hidden there and the bruiser held on for dear life as the vehicle disengaged from the magnetic grid entirely, hurtling down towards the floating land mass at an alarming speed.

"Annie—!"

"Relax, I know what I'm doing." A giggle left her, joy tainted by an almost malicious glee, and Vi found that she wasn't comforted in the least. Still, she didn't ask Emma to override the young woman's control just yet, her curiosity getting the best of her.

She wanted to see just what this little speed demon was capable of.

As though reading her mind, Annie gave a sly wink and gunned the engine, sending them sailing forward as she initiated the free-roam protocol located just below Emma's little feet, thrusters along the bottom of the hover car flaring to life in response.

"Madam, you can't be serious about letting her do this," the A.I complained. "Miss Caitlyn would have a fit if she knew you were driving off of the grid."

"Cait'll find something else to bitch about if not this," the pinkette said dismissively. "And who says we'll get caught?"

"There's no fun in that," the spell-caster agreed, shifting gears and gaining altitude rapidly until they were level with the domed solar panel-covered roofs of the greenhouses that supplied the city with the majority of its food supply. She waved cheerily at the astonished workers and the vehicle dipped, narrowly avoiding cramming into a neon sign that read, "Inner City Limit," much to Vi's displeasure. The girl veered through the residential area as though it were an obstacle course, avoiding pedestrians and mechanical beings alike with minute turns of the wheel; at one point, it seemed that they were going to crash into a streetlamp, but the mage's hands glowed a fiery red and the pole's middle burned with the same light, bending limply to allow their passage.

"Honestly, Annie, you can't just go around doing that."

"Sorry," she chirped, not sounding sorry at all. In fact, her eyes blazed and there was a loud creaking as they burst through the newly melted hole in a sign advertising new technological advancements at the Techmaturgical Laboratories.

"Fuck's sake—!" Vi lurched forward in her seat as they came to a sudden stop, her seatbelt cutting into her ribs as it did its intended job.

"You have arrived at your destination," Emma grumbled, arms crossed disapprovingly over her chest.

The pinkette looked at the clock: what was usually a twenty minute drive had taken only five—a shortcut indeed.

'_Well damn.'_

"Stay in the car," she commanded, giving her companion a warning look as she climbed out onto thankfully solid ground. The currency converter that she was looking for was a vending machine-like contraption sandwiched between the city hall building, a rather impressive structure comprised of glistening white columns and archways, and the national bank, a nondescript beige building that always had men in the navy blue PPD uniform standing at its key entry points at all hours of the day.

Vi raised a hand in greeting to one of the officers she recognized, pulling the strange coin from the breast pocket of her jacket and inserting it into the mouth of the machine. She swiped her credentials and the A.I operating the machine said, "Welcome, Officer Vi. What currency would you like this converted into?"

"Credits." They were the local Piltover currency—completely electronic and so much neater than cash, credits were stored directly on the identification card she had just swiped and were accessible to Emma should the Piltover Enforcer ever need her A.I to make a remote purchase.

"Just a moment." The computer's fans whirred pleasantly for a brief period of time before a little bell went off, and the currency converter said quietly, "Officer, please stand aside."

"Huh?"

From out of the bank, heading straight for the bruiser, came a rotund little man in a suit bearing a severe expression and at his heel was none other than Jayce.

The wide-shouldered Champion frowned upon seeing Vi. "You… What are you doing here?"

"Converting currency, obviously," the pinkette deadpanned, jabbing her thumb in the machine's direction. "I think this thing's defective, though."

"No, it isn't," the other man insisted, his tone just as sharp as his mien. His nametag revealed that he was Fitzgerald, the head banker and his tone became even sharper as he took in the earrings along the shell of the bruiser's ear, her unorthodox hairdo, and the twinkling stud in her nose. "The system merely recognized that it cannot pay you the amount you are asking for without proper authorization."

Vi blinked, a little red flag going off in her head. "Just how much are we talking?"

The Defender of Tomorrow shook his head. "How did someone like _you _come by an artifact like _that? _It's clearly not from this . Fitzgerald here called me because he assumed it was stolen or counterfeit. Naturally you would be the one standing outside."

"How much?" she asked again, impatiently.

Fitzgerald cleared his throat and straightened his tie. "Well, that's… Er… Your sum, Miss Vi, is one hundred million credits. If you would like it paid in full now, then I will have to ask you to wait while the request is processed. That may take up to an hour."

But the bruiser wasn't listening; her legs were suddenly unsteady and she plopped down on the step, her expression stunned. "I'm sorry, what did you just say?"

"You heard him," Jayce snapped, crossing his arms over his broad chest. His dark gaze wandered to the pinkette's vehicle and narrowed: Annie had emerged and was walking around the front of the car to climb into the passenger side. "Who's your friend?"

Shit, it was just her luck that the Defender of Tomorrow had been in the neighborhood. Goodness knew he'd flap his lips around Caitlyn and she'd need to come up with a good cover story.

"I'll collect some now and get the rest later, Fitz," she said, ignoring the brown-haired bruiser completely.

The banker bristled at the nickname, but obediently pulled out what appeared to be a simple pen from the lapel of his suit and held out his hand for her identification card. Upon receiving it, he scribbled down an amount and there was a cheery, electronic chime as Emma received and stored the credits.

She must have looked at the amount _after _accepting, because the A.I gasped. "Madam?"

"Later, Em." The pinkette grinned crookedly and saluted. "It's been a pleasure, gentlemen. Now, if you'll excuse me…"

Vi ignored Jayce's attempt at questioning her and side-stepped the hand he raised to stop her, practically flying down the steps to the platform where her car waited.

Annie looked up as the driver's side door lifted and started a moment later when Vi leaped in with a jubilant cry. "Emma, mall."

"Yes, madam." The hover car bobbed, then lifted into the air and headed off in the desired direction.

She rounded on the mage. "C'mere, you…!"

The red-head yelped as she was enveloped in a hug. "Um… What did I do?"

"Holy shit, Annie, you said "substantial." You never said you were a fucking millionaire!"

"Oh. Yeah."

Vi held the girl at arm's length so that she could stare incredulously, utterly confused by her nonchalance—as though the fact had slipped the mage's mind because it was just that uninteresting to her. "'_Oh. Yeah'_!_?"_

The Dark Child smiled, apparently amused by the bruiser's disbelief. "I told you, Vi, I have no use for money. It's yours."

Well fuck, there was no way she could kick the kid out now.

* * *

Several hours later, both girls had an entirely new wardrobe crammed into multiple shopping bags and Vi had even purchased some sick new shit kickers. All that was left was…

The bruiser averted her gaze as the sales associate measured Annie's bust, shifting her weight from her heels to the balls of her feet.

Why the hell was she even in the same room while this was going on?

Oh, right, Annie had been nervous and goodness knows a request from the mage coupled with that wide-eyes-pout combo was basically a command to the warrior at this point.

'_Ugh.'_

She was a 34-C, apparently—a full cup size larger than the older woman.

Vi wasn't sure how she felt about that.

"How about this one?" Annie asked, examining herself in the full-length mirror. "This one" was a lacy bra—purple, of course—with cute little ribbons of a darker shade at the spots where the straps met the cups.

"It's great."

"You didn't even look!"

Nor should she.

The bruiser groaned inwardly, completely and utterly uncomfortable with the way her body seemed to be totally unaware that this "hot little number" was _Annie. _A-N-N-I-E.

Well, her brain and her newly developed conscience certainly recognized the mage.

"I looked, kid. How many of these things are you going to try on, anyway? It's getting late and I wanna hit the electronics store before we head back."

"Okay…" Was it just her or did the girl seem disappointed?

She made as if to remove the brassier and the bruiser jumped, quickly turning her back on the all too tempting sight. "I'll meet you out by the car."

The pinkette couldn't stumble out of the fitting room fast enough.

"Why do you keep panicking like that?" Emma inquired once they were safely out of ear shot, her miniature appearing on Vi's shoulder.

"I don't know what you're talking about," the bruiser lied.

"Mhmm… You are aware that I can read your vitals through the hardware wired through your breastplate, yes?"

Fuck's sake.

"I dunno, Em. It's weird."

"What is?"

"Annie. Me… Looking."

The A.I tilted her head. "As I recall, Miss Hastur fits what you consider to be attractive in a female."

"Unfortunately."

"And why is that?"

"You ask too many damn questions," she snapped, irritated by the fact that the A.I was asking the exact same questions she had been asking herself lately.

"Apologies."

Great, now Emma was disappointed with her as well.

Vi sighed heavily, jamming her hands into her pockets. Women—both artificial and natural—were currently the bane of her existence.

She jumped when someone latched onto the crook of her arm, but it could be no other than—

"Where are we heading?"

The pinkette swallowed, hyper aware of the fact that Annie _still_ wasn't wearing one of her recent purchases and that the warm swell of flesh was pressing into her bicep.

But, as she opened her mouth to reply, a familiar tingle traveled from the crown of her head to the tips of her toes and she frowned, quickly popping the trunk and shoving their purchases inside.

"Do you feel that, too?" the mage asked, quickly removing her charm and returning to original form.

Vi nodded, surprised that the both of them were being Summoned at the exact same time. What were the odds?

"Emma, take the car back," she commanded, pulling the communicator from the inside of her collar and tossing it in alongside their purchases. The A.I wasn't allowed in Runeterra, though she very much wanted to accompany her mistress. Fortunately, she couldn't sync with Vi's gauntlets as they hadn't been created by Techmaturgical Laboratories like the other 98.9% of electronics in Piltover—much to Heimerdinger's chagrin.

"Yes, madam."

A moment later, she was standing at the edge of a circular platform in the middle of a beam of light along with Annie and three others, each positioned in a circle.

After sizing up her team, the bruiser groaned. "Shit. Jungling again."

The Champion to Annie's right, a lavender-skinned young woman with the slender legs of a foal, cloven hooves, and a curved horn jutting out of the center of her forehead scoffed. "Hopefully your Summoner's better than the one from last match. I swear, if I get one more Summoner that chooses Lee Sin jungle and is apparently as blind as the Champion they selected, I'll rage quit."

Such cold words from such a gentle looking creature. Vi shook her head, stepping off the Summoning pad to grab a Hunter's Machete and five Health Pots. The starting jungler's build was like second nature to her by now. "Well, I guess I'll just have to count on your ult to save my ass, Soraka."

The healer scoffed again, but didn't reply.

"I've got your back, Riven. I'll grab Red first and gank after Blue."

The silver-haired woman who had been standing across from Vi shot her a minute smile from underneath the green hood of the cropped jacket she wore over her golden armor as she headed for the top lane. The giant, rune-covered blade of the broadsword at her hip was broken, but the pinkette knew for a fact that the Exile could wield it better than half the Champs on the Rift could wield whole ones.

Azure eyes roamed over the back of form-fitting green pants and the bruiser grinned wickedly. She had a thing for voluptuous rears and Riven fit the bill.

She turned to their AD Carry and the expression faded to be replaced with a stern frown. He hailed from her neck of the woods and she knew he was a good kid. Still… "Ez, Draven's gonna kick the shit out of you if you aren't careful. So keep your damn eyes off'a Taric and you should be golden. Ya got me, pretty boy?"

The blonde young man's face flushed, but he merely nodded and grabbed a Doran's Blade, heading to Red Buff to leash at a slightly slower pace than he usually would, Soraka in tow.

"You alright, kid?"

Annie hadn't said a word since they had crossed between worlds.

"Uh-huh."

'_Okay…' _Not one to pry, the bruiser rested a gauntleted hand gently on the girl's head. "Swain's tough, but you can beat him. Just be careful."

"**Minions have spawned."**

Vi started at the feminine voice of the omnipresent referee who monitored all matches on Summoner's Rift. She should have been at the Buff already—what the hell was her Summoner waiting for?

* * *

By the time first blood had been called (Vi had ganked as promised and the two had managed to fell the terrifying reptilian warrior, Renekton, earning her a little extra coin and another small smile from the serious warrior), the pinkette was ready to recall and grab some goodies for a little extra hurt points. She passed through the top portion of the enemy jungle at the command of her Summoner, dutifully leaving only a small Wraith in its camp as she went around, approaching Swain from behind his Turret.

She heard the familiar sound of a targeting Ping, but it appeared Annie wasn't paying attention. In fact, neither mage was moving, their Minions striking mindlessly at one another around their feet.

"Something's different about you, girl," the old man was saying from behind the cloth wrapped around his lower face, his frightening crimson eyes boring into the Dark Child. "I sense power."

The younger spell-caster looked down at her shiny black shoes and said nothing, cowed for the first time Vi had seen. Something inside of the pinkette bristled righteously, fully prepared to tear the head off of anyone who dared to trouble her—

Whoa, whoa, whoa—_hers_?! Annie wasn't _her_ anything!

"Show me."

Vi felt a surge of power from the Master Tactician as a minion nearby collapsed like a deflated balloon and he leveled up; he held out a hand and a glowing rune appeared below Annie's feet, talons lunging out of it a moment later to hold the magenta-haired mage in place.

It was then that her Summoner decided that bot lane was a good place to be, likely deciding that the young spell-caster was done for without her ult handy. The chilling realization that Swain had just gotten his made the bruiser stop dead in her tracks, her contractual obedience warring with her concern for her unexpected housemate.

When the old man transformed into a monstrous raven with decaying green-black feathers that shed with each lurching step towards his target, the pinkette bit the inside of her cheek so hard that she tasted copper, her feet taking a few hesitant steps toward bot lane despite herself.

Annie cried out as a flock of the winged threats assaulted her, cawing raucously, and her health dropped from full to half in an instant.

That was the last straw.

"We're doing this _my _way," she snarled at her Summoner, gathering up all of her will to break free of the magical chains that bound her. She staggered, drained, but there was no time to rest as she _Vault Breaker_'d past the enemy Turret, a thin red beam of light connecting the hextech gauntlet that lead her charge to her target as she closed the gap between them, grabbing the creature by one of its rotting wings and hurling it up, into the air.

Her eyes met with Annie's for a brief moment before she kicked off of the ground, dashing straight through a cloud of feathers and past the air-born Noxian, flipping mid-hurtle—

"Eat _THIS!_"

—to smash a glowing gauntlet into his stomach, sending him right back towards the ground.

The impact wasn't enough to kill the Master Tactician so long as his _Ravenous Flock _was still veering wildly around him, but it was enough to stun him and his landing managed to smash a few of the enemy minions, providing the shell-shocked mage with the experience she needed to level up.

"What're you waiting for, kid?" the bruiser demanded, landing in a crouch. "Send him back to base!"

After a moment's hesitation, flames engulfed the girl's right hand and she waved a blazing path through the air, a hateful light burning in bright green eyes. "Get 'em, Tibbers."

Vi had to shield her eyes from the explosion of light and heat that resulted from the girl summoning her familiar. Squinting against the brightness, she was struck by how large the shadow bear was, its blunt muzzle opening to release a ferocious roar that had the other Champions looking over from their lanes.

Swain laughed sinisterly, the feathers melting away to reveal his true form. "Excellent! What power!"

He didn't seem particularly concerned about the fiery ursine creature that loomed above him even as Tibbers's broad paw swiped at him, long claws tearing through the mage's midsection, setting his cloak ablaze and sending him straight back to the spawning point behind the Nexus to be reborn in roughly fifteen seconds.

**"An enemy has been slain."**

Vi breathed a sigh of relief and turned to face her ally, a lump forming in her throat as she was pinned by an intense, malevolent stare.

"Annie…?"

The Dark Child grinned, a giggle tinged with madness leaving her throat as she pointed directly at the bruiser. "I'm rubber and you're… _On fire._"

"Oh shi—" The bruiser tucked and rolled under the yordle-sized fireball that drifted lazily towards her, wincing as the heat of it actually made her skin flush red. "What the hell's the matter with you, kid?"

"I'm not a kid!" She stamped her foot and Tibbers growled, lumbering forward.

'_Crap.' _"Annie, snap out of it. It's me, Vi. Remember? We're… friends."

It felt weird to say, but the warrior knew it to be the truth. She valued Annie as an ally and a companion—a capable Champion as well as someone who was fun to spend time with.

There was no recognition in her dark green eyes, just the all-consuming hunger of flame. "Bear hug!"

Tibbers lunged and the bruiser yelped, leaping backwards and deflecting those wickedly sharp claws with the backs of her gauntlets. "Aww, c'mon!" She wracked her brains, desperately trying to remember what she had said last time to get the girl to listen. "Shit!" The bear had actually belched flame and Vi smelled the horrible stench of burnt hair.

There was no such thing as friendly fire on the Rift, but apparently Annie had figured something out.

'_Think, Vi!'_

"Uh… Act like a child and you'll be treated like one." She said it as sternly as she could, darting into the brush to the far right of the lane in an effort to stay out of reach of the gaining Tibbers.

Something flickered in those big green eyes and the girl scowled. "I'm not a child… I'm not…" There was a desolate note in her voice that made the bruiser's heart pang sympathetically in response, and Tibbers froze mid-swipe, roaring as he collapsed into a pile of ash.

Annie fell to her knees, her bangs falling forward to hide her face as she stared at the ground.

When Vi came to stand next to her, she looked up, her eyes curiously shiny. "I'm not a child," she repeated vacantly.

Guilt filled the bruiser. She didn't realize her nickname had had such a profound effect on the magenta-haired spell-caster. "No, you aren't. I'm sorry, ki—Annie. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."

She offered a gauntleted hand and the young mage took it, wordlessly throwing her arms around the older woman's thigh once she was on her feet.

The pinkette tensed, but then rested a hand on the girl's back, the gauntlet large enough to cover the majority of her tiny body, a curiously soft expression gracing her fierce features.

From his side of the lane, Swain smirked.

Fascinating.

x-x-x

Fenrir rolled onto his back, stretching out his little legs as the sun warmed his furry tummy. He meowed pleasantly at Annie, who smiled slightly. The expression didn't reach her eyes, which remained troubled.

_/ "Are you giving up so easily?" Morgana asked, crossing her long legs under the hem of her skirt._

_The cat bristled slightly at her tone, icy blue eyes narrowed._

"_Sister," Kayle admonished. She was leaning against the Fallen Angel's side, her head nestled against the ashen woman's collar. "Try and be more sympathetic. Annie is clearly uncertain of how to proceed."_

_The Dark Child shot the blonde a grateful look and her younger sister scoffed. "I do not see the problem here. Simply throw yourself at the human. She does not possess a reputation for having very adequate self-control—if any."_

"_I can't just do that!"_

"_Unlike you, others have tact, Morgana," Kayle chucked. The Judicator ignored the glare she received in favor of reaching out and snagging Fenrir by his nape, lifting him to eye level so that she could examine him. "Your friend is rather interesting," she commented, tickling his chin with a finger._

"_He's a homunculus, an artificial life form created by my mother," she explained. "The glamor spell on his collar was enchanted by a friend of hers, a master enchantress, and it allows him to change forms. He's really just a puppet."_

_The homunculus whined and Kayle lowered him to her lap, sinking gloved fingers into his thick white fur. "Whatever he is, he is impressively made. Your mother must be a very powerful magic user."_

"_She was…"_

_Kayle frowned slightly. "Apologies."_

_A cool breeze stirred the long grasses around them and the leaves of the great boughs above them whispered._

"_Cease your niceties," Morgana snapped testily. She wasn't a fan of how well her sister and the Dark Child seemed to get along. "I reworked the charm as you asked and yet you seem content to sit here, twiddling your thumbs nervously, rather than act."_

"_Vi doesn't think of me like that. She's made it abundantly clear."_

"_Tch. You seemed so confident the first time you approached me. Could it be that you no longer desire what you thought you did—what that vision revealed to me?"_

_Oh… That. The Dark Child blushed, averting her gaze from the sorceress. "O-of course I do…"_

"_The heart is a fickle thing," Kayle commented wisely. She reached up and cupped Morgana's cheek, smiling when her sister jerked away from the gentle touch with a scowl on her face. "Take my dear sister as an example. She may act a certain way, but what is in her heart…" The Judicator slipped her hand into the mage's mane of violet hair and forcibly turned that lovely face towards her own, making the younger immortal gasp quietly. "I know that it is I that she wants and no one else."_

"_Enough." There was a faint pink hue about her cheeks, the corners of her mouth quirking into a small, helpless smile, and Annie was stunned. In this moment, the Fallen Angel was actually quite cute._

"_Tell me, Annie, do you know what lies in your precious bruiser's heart?" No, she didn't. She didn't have the slightest idea. When her expression fell, the blonde chuckled, the sound warm and smooth as silk. "It is never too late to learn." /_

"Ki—Annie, you in there? You've been sitting there with that puss just kind of staring off into space."

The mage pulled herself from her thoughts, and looked to the woman in the doorway, smiling at the bruiser's slip up. She really was trying… It was sweet.

"Can I have a hug?"

Azure eyes widened slightly at the sudden request. "Um… Sure."

She rose from her lawn chair to step into the taller woman's body, wrapping her arms around the warrior's slender waist, and breathing in the clean, curiously earthy smell that was totally Vi. After a moment's hesitation, strong arms wrapped around her shoulders and Annie felt her heart skip a beat.

This felt… right—like she belonged. She hadn't had a home for a little over a year now, but here in the pinkette's arms, she felt safe.

"Something bothering you?" her voice was quiet, rough. As though there was something on her mind.

"I like you."

A chuckle. "I like you, too, Annie... Even though you're a pain in my ass."

Fenrir mewled questioningly, sitting up on his perch on the narrow railing that ran the perimeter of the terrace. His furry form cast shadows on the wooden deck.

"I'm sorry for attacking you the other day."

"No harm, no foul. I'm just glad you're back to normal. You were kind of scary and crazed." The bruiser made as though to pull away, only to stop when slim hands grasped at her jacket. "C'mon, Princess, tell me what's on your mind."

'"_Princess"?' _That was new. She rather liked it.

"Vi, how come you put up with me?" She had seen the way the Piltover Enforcer treated other people: she was blunt to the point of cruelty, both her actions and mannerisms stubbornly callous.

And yet, with Annie, she could be gentle—caring, even. She could be kind and thoughtful and generous… And that was a side of the bruiser most people would never see.

Why her?

"Your guess's as good as mine," the pinkette sighed. This time, she did pull away, placing distance between them that, somehow, wasn't merely physical. "Dinner's ready, you coming?"

Annie's heart throbbed painfully, a panicky flutter in her chest. "Vi—"

"Madam, the Sheriff will be at your door shortly," Emma's voice interrupted from the woman's collar. "Shall I let her in?"

"Yeah. I'll be right down." Without a second glance, the bruiser headed back inside.

Downstairs, Caitlyn was waiting in the foyer, her sniper rifle strapped to her back.

"Piltover's Finest are on the case," Vi was saying, a cocky grin curving her lips. "We got this, Cupcake, relax."

"I hope you're right," the brunette muttered, stepping aside and gesturing for the bruiser to go past her.

Before she did, Vi glanced over at the mage and mouthed 'behave,' raising two fingers to her temple in a little farewell salute. Then, she was gone.

Annie had been by herself plenty of times before, whether in the vast silence of the library or while wandering the rift, but she had never felt so alone as she did now.

x-x-x

"Emma."

"Madam?"

"Stay here and watch out for Annie."

"Very well." The A.I hesitated. "May I ask what is troubling you?"

"It's nothing. This new mission's giving me cold feet is all." It was a lie and they both knew that.

"What is the young Miss Hastur to you, madam? She seems to make you happy at one moment and uneasy at the next."

"Not really in the mood for an interrogation, Em."

"My only concern is that your health may suffer from your extremes in emotion, madam," Emma insisted. "You toss and turn in your sleep and your restless energy is affecting your combat performance. You should settle whatever the matter is with Annie so that everything can return to normal."

"'Normal'," Vi repeated, laughing darkly. There was nothing "normal" about wanting to have sex with a little girl—no matter how old she looked at the present moment. "Right. I think it's far too late for that. The kid's burrowed her way under my skin and is bouncing around, asking if I want to play with her bear, Tibbers."

Emma chuckled at the imagery. "Perhaps that is not such a bad thing? The two of you seem to get along rather well and—"

"I don't want to hear any more about the subject, Em," the pinkette snapped.

The A.I noted the way her mistress's heartbeat sped up, her temperature rising with her ire. Whatever was on the warrior's mind, she was struggling with it.

"I am here to assist you, madam," Emma said firmly. "It is the entire purpose of my creation."

"Yeah, well, I don't need any help."

With that, the Piltover Enforcer hustled after her partner.

**-End Chapter-**

For those of you who may not have noticed, I love Kayle and Morgana / They're my favorite League pairing. Though I feel as though badass Vi with anyone is becoming a close second. Haha.

Review, review, review! Your feedback lets me know exactly how I should tell this tale.


	5. Might as Well Just Surrender

I showed a bit more Caitlyn-Vi interaction here, simply because the two are awesome… And I wanted to do a covert ops scene really badly xD It helps that the weather has been like this all damn weekend –grumbles-

**-Might as Well Just… /ff-**

Lightning whipped across the dark sky with a deafening _'crack!'_, bright enough to make night seem like day for a brief moment. The sky above Piltover opened up, releasing the deluge it had been storing in dark, ominous rain clouds, and a lonely wind howled through the empty streets.

No one should have been out given the weather and the hour, yet…

"How's the old lady?"

Vi tilted her head back to look at the sniper crouching on the rooftops, the lenses of the red glasses she wore displaying Caitlyn's vitals as well as a brief synopsis of the brunette's strengths.

"_She's well." _There was a rare note of affection in the brunette's voice. "_Just yesterday—"_

"Damn, Cupcake, I didn't know you knew martial arts!"

The Sheriff of Piltover sighed. _"Need I remind you that this is a stealth mission?"_

"Well, duh. That's why I'm in all black." The bruiser's usual, colourful garb had been replaced by a tight black shirt, leather pants, and those knee-high combat boots she had bought when she had gone shopping with—

'_Annie…' _The mage's name made the pinkette sigh.

"_Silly me," _the sniper said sarcastically, shaking the bruiser from her troubling thoughts.

The ensemble was covered by a floor-length black trench coat she had donned to stave off the rain; Vi stuffed her gloved hands into its pockets and hunched her shoulders. "How come I only ever get these cool gadgets when I'm with you?"

"_You tend to break things." _The AD Carry had traded the ruffly purple dress she normally wore for a black, skintight cat suit and Vi had to admit, she had looked yummy while she had been scaling the building she now stood on—like some sort of sexy villainess from a comic book. _"Now shut your trap and head up."_

"Ooh… Bossy. I like that.

"_Vi."_

"Alright, alright! Geez."

The pinkette walked over to the building and pulled her hands from her pockets, examining the Alpha Adhesion (guaranteed to allow even a small elephant to climb surfaces as easily as a spider would!) gloves she had been handed during briefing for a moment before pressing her palm to the wet metal. True to its name, the fabric adhered to the surface and the woman began to climb, the soles of her boots having been coated in the same substance.

"_Your friend… 'Anna', was it? She's pretty."_

Vi misplaced her hand in her surprise, sliding down a few feet as a result. "That's random."

"_Last I checked, you didn't let anyone into your penthouse, much less let them stay there. And she does fit your tastes—tall, well built, dark hair—to a tee. What is she to you?"_

"Fucking hell… Not you too, Cait!"

"_Pardon?"_

The bruiser hefted herself up to crouch on the steel railing of a balcony. "Em's on the same shit. 'Anna' is just a friend, okay?"

The sniper made a thoughtful sound, but thankfully didn't comment further.

It took her several minutes to get to the top of the building and, by then, Caitlyn was fiddling with the device on her wrist, cycling _through_ a series of images until she came to one that resembled a narrow catwalk and pinched the little holographic display between her fingers, procuring a full-sized version of the apparatus and hefting it over the side of the building to bridge the gap between it and their target.

"Are you ready?" Her glasses were wraparounds, the dark slate colour hiding her eyes from view.

"Born ready."

Their mission was simple: infiltrate the premises, apprehend the goods, then beat feet—all without alerting anyone of their presence. Heimerdinger had been very clear with his instructions, giving the bruiser a pointed look over his spectacles all the while: he would provide them with any gadgets they thought they would need and they were allowed to use any means necessary _except _violence.

Should they fail, the dynamic duo would be terminated on the spot.

"I can't believe Professor Heimerdinger would do such a thing," the brunette muttered, pushing her glasses to the top of her head and pulling a disk-shaped device from the rucksack slung over her shoulder. She pressed a sequence of buttons on its broad face before attaching it to the security system that powered the heavy bolts that held the thick metal door before them shut.

"Really? He always struck me as having a few screws loose." When she received a sharp look, the bruiser shrugged her shoulders. "Cool your jets, Cupcake. We won't fail. When have I ever let you down?"

"… You haven't."

"Exactly. So chin up, let's do this."

The door opened without a sound to reveal a spacious, Spartan room with glass walls. The pinkette rolled her eyes, not needing her glasses to know that there was a laser grid criss-crossing the floor and every inch of open space that one could pass through.

She was about to ask Emma to override the mainframe control—a neat trick the A.I had learned from a hacker friend of hers—when she remembered where the program was and frowned.

She hadn't even told Annie where she was going… She hoped the girl wasn't too worried.

The niggling concern made the bruiser's frown deepen.

"What's wrong?" Caitlyn hissed, assuming from the set of her partner's shoulders that the pinkette had spotted trouble.

"It's nothing. Pass me that sticky blue crap." When she received the tube of what was actually a conductive polymer, the bruiser poured some out over the metal box of wires and gears. Before Caitlyn could question her actions, Vi pulled up her sleeve and opened a panel on her right vambrace, carefully unplugging a cable and pressing the sparking, pronged end of it over the pool.

The result was instantaneous: smoke rose from the case as the electrical current short-circuited the mechanism within and the grid flickered, then disengaged entirely.

Sometimes, the Piltover Sheriff had to wonder what would have happened if her partner hadn't agreed to work on the right side of the law all those years ago.

The pair started across the room, footsteps carefully muffled, eyes peeled for any sign of trouble.

"Hey, Cupcake?"

"I wish you'd stop with the nickname. What is it?"

"What exactly are we looking for?" The brunette smashed the heel of her palm into her forehead and Vi grinned amusedly. "What?"

"You remember Orianna, yes?"

"Psychotic robo-chick? Yeah."

The room led into a narrow hallway that was curiously free of any sort of surveillance, according to Vi's glasses. She looked to Caitlyn and the gunner nodded, her own lenses confirming what the bruiser's were telling her.

"Professor Heimerdinger would like a chance to examine The Ball that her father, Dr. Corin Reveck, created. It is a weapon with great potential for destruction and, well, you know how the professor gets when someone creates something before he does."

Right. The old yordle was positively batty for the bruiser's gauntlets—not that she'd ever give him the chance to examine them up close.

"… Hold up, so we're _stealing _that thing? I thought we were the good guys."

The sniper sighed, jerking her head in the direction they were supposed to go once the hallway forked. "It's… complicated."

"My ass. Seems like we're breaking the law, _Sheriff._"

"Cut it out," Caitlyn said irritably. "I know, but it's not like we have much of a choice. Techmaturgical Laboratories is a huge backer for the police department."

"Shady."

The brunette groaned. "We're not stealing anything. We're merely… "borrowing" the schematics from the good doctor and returning them by morning."

"Uh huh…"

Just then, there was a soft, mechanical sound and Vi threw her arm out, stopping the other woman in her tracks.

"What is it?"

Vi shook her head, raising a finger to her lips.

The glasses had scanned for security systems. That didn't include machines not built with the safety of Dr. Reveck's facility in mind.

There was another sound, a gentle… ticking. Caitlyn's eyes widened as the pinkette grabbed her arm, swung open the closest door, and shoved her inside, following behind her a moment later. As luck would have it, it was a storage closet of some kind and Vi found herself up close and personal with the Sheriff of Piltover, the shorter woman's thigh wedged between her own.

Awkward.

The awkward meter ramped up as the brunette shifted, muttering about something digging into her back, and that thigh rubbed up against sensitive flesh…

'_Fucking hell.' _"Could ya keep still?!"

"_Shhh_!"

There were quiet footsteps just down the hall. Then, a familiar robotic voice murmured, _"_**I hear soft things**_**.**__"_

"Is something wrong, dear?" a male's voice asked.

The footsteps stopped and the duo shared a look—that had to be Dr. Reveck.

"**No, father. Perhaps my audio processor was mistaken.**"

"Hm… I should check that out. Are you ready to go home?"

The footsteps resumed. "**Yes. The Ball is impatient.**"

"We can't have that," the man chuckled, sounding every bit the doting parent. "I'll just be a few minutes. Will you please start dinner?"

"**If that is your command.**"

"That's my girl."

Vi waited until their footsteps faded before she breathed a sigh of relief. "Poor guy."

"Quite." The brunette shoved at her partner's shoulders. "Now, if you'd _please _let me out of here."

"Easy, Cupcake. Don't excite me even more."

At the bruiser's suggestive tone, Caitlyn blinked and followed her pointed look, her cheeks going the most hilarious shade of scarlet a moment later. "Sorry."

A flustered Sheriff was a cute Sheriff.

"No sweat," Vi drawled, smirking. She leaned in, the smirk widening into a full out leer. "I mean, if you want, we could—"

"A-absolutely not!" That scowl was more than agitated than angry. "You know how I feel about workplace relationships."

All too well. Still, messing with the boss lady was intensely amusing. "Ah, but you didn't say you didn't want me, Cupcake. And you may have noticed we aren't in the workplace right now…"

Whoops, she had gone too far. The sniper showed off her martial arts prowess right there and then with a sharp roundhouse (impressive considering the lack of space); she reached past the pinkette and opened the door at the same time, enabling her partner to fall unceremoniously onto her ass on the cold tile.

"Let's make this quick."

They headed the direction opposite the one the good doctor and his android daughter had gone, the only other security measure being an alarm Vi would have tripped had Caitlyn not grabbed the back of her trench coat and jerked her to a sudden halt.

In fact, the most difficult part of their infiltration was finding the damn schematics in the mess of assorted documents spread around the doctor's office once Vi, much to the Sheriff of Piltover's disdain, had picked the lock.

All in all, it was disappointingly easy for Piltover's Finest.

Still, mission success.

* * *

"Mm… Yes… fascinating."

Vi rolled her eyes, flinching when Caitlyn whacked her on the arm. The little lady was stronger than she looked.

"We got you what you asked for, Heimy. It's hella late and I'm tired—can I go now?" Another whack. "_What?!_"

The yordle made a dismissive gesture. "No harm done, Sheriff. Thank you for your cooperation."

"Yes, of course."

"I don't suppose you've rethought my offer, Vi?"

_Offer? _Caitlyn's expression asked.

"Nah. Being a lab rat's not my thing."

"Shame. You've a surprising brain mass given your rather brutish appearance."

The pinkette snorted, not one to be insulted by what she deemed an 'egg head.' "I'll take that as a compliment. G'night, professor."

As the Champions exited Techmaturgical Laboratories, Caitlyn turned to her companion. "Thank you."

"For what?" She was genuinely perplexed. "You know you can ask me for help whenever, Cait. I'm your partner."

She was graced with a rare, beauteous smile. "I know."

"Besides, it was worth seeing your ass in that cat suit," the bruiser added, more to dispel the too-serious atmosphere than anything. She dodged another smack and gave her superior a jaunty salute. "See you around, Cupcake."

* * *

The windows were dark when Vi pulled up to the front of her penthouse. Emma came out immediately, inquiring about the mission even as she ushered Vi inside and had the hover car zipping off to its proper place.

At the foot of the stairs, the A.I hovered uncertainly, the dimmed lights flickering spookily in response to a rumble of thunder. "Madam…"

"What?" She shed her trench coat, dropping it to the floor and ignoring Emma's disapproving look with practiced ease. "You've been twitchy since I got back, spit it out."

"Ah. There's a matter of…" She trailed off, muttering, and the bruiser shook her head perplexedly.

'_Okay…'_

Not one to wait patiently, the pinkette strode through the distracted hologram, flinging open the double doors that lead into her room. It was dark, but a dazzling bolt of lightning streaked through the sky, illuminating—

"The fuck, Annie?! My bed falls under the whole 'personal space' thing." Narrowed azure eyes flicked to the A.I, whose expression was rather guilty. "And _you_ let her in here?"

"But—"

There was a soft sound—a frightened, desperate little yelp—and the young woman curled up in Vi's bed latched onto her, knocking the bruiser over and burying her face in the taller woman's throat.

The mage's grip was surprisingly strong and she was shaking like a poro, her pointed ears plastered flat against the top of her head. If she had a matching tail, Vi imagined it would have been puffed up to twice its normal size and the ridiculous—albeit, cute—mental image almost made her chuckle. Almost.

Instead, she held onto her ire. "Geez, what's eating you?"

"Make it stop," she whispered, lips brushing against Vi's skin as she spoke.

The bruiser tensed—what was it with the women in her life and doing shit like that!?

"Make w-what stop?" Curse the hitch in her voice!

Another lightning strike rent the air in two, a deafening floodlight, and Annie squealed, her grip tightening and effectively cutting off the pinkette's air supply.

'_You've gotta be fucking kidding me.'_

She carefully pried slim arms from around her windpipe, growling, "Annie… You make fire your bitch. Your best friend is a big ass, flaming bear monster… You fight warriors and mages and archers on a daily basis… And you're _afraid of a little thunderstorm?!_"

A rumble of thunder punctuated the woman's statement and the spell-caster whimpered. "It isn't funny, Vi! F-fear is irrational, okay?"

"I'll say…" A memory surfaced and the bruiser frowned. "You didn't seem too scared when those mages were chasing us back in Noxus."

"I-I was too busy trying to get away." She cowered. "Besides, magic is a controlled instance. This…"

'_CRACK.'_

Vi sighed, resigning herself to a long night as the red-head sobbed, quivering. "My life…" she muttered. "Alright, alright, will you let me up? You can bunk with me tonight—just stop your damn crying."

When she didn't receive a reply or any indication that the younger woman had noticed that she had even spoken, the pinkette sighed and rose slowly, lifting the terrified mage with her. She crossed the room and sat Annie down on her bed, turning from the girl to change into something more comfortable.

Naturally, she didn't make it more than two steps before there was a tug on her coattails and she halted. Arms looped around her waist, and she felt the unusual heat of the pyromaniac against her back.

"Thank you…" Her voice was still a little shaky, but she seemed to have settled down a bit. "You and Caitlyn were gone for a good while."

There was an odd waver to her voice when she said the Sheriff's name, a dejected apprehension, and Vi blinked. Did she have something against the sniper? "We had shit to do."

"Oh… Well I'm glad you're back."

The warrior grunted in response, gently detangling herself—though the action left her curiously cold—and striding over to the chest of drawers next to the door. As she pawed through her clothes in search of something suitable for bed, an idea occurred to the pinkette. "Hey, Em, pull up the online shopping district."

"Yes, madam." The A.I stepped forward and procured a holographic display that resembled a circuit board, little multicoloured lights zipping along its wiring. When the bruiser reached out and twirled her finger over a segment of it, it projected a little auction droid sitting cross legged atop a massive scrolling list of products and services available.

"Welcome!" it chirped, glowing orange eyes curving into friendly little crescents. "The time is 3:18AM. Sectors 0096, 0556, and 1028 are still online."

"Mm…" A few more gestures and the pinkette had narrowed the list down to about a dozen locations across town. After sliding a few of them free, she commanded, "Check these out. Tell the seller that I'll pay double whatever they're asking if they can get it to me within the next five minutes."

Emma blinked, her features purposefully unreadable. "Right away, madam."

Her body dissolved into lines of code, sparkling for a moment as it swirled around the circuit board before being absorbed into the device.

"What are you buying?" Annie asked curiously, having watched the entire exchange with wide eyes.

"Just wait." She started to peel her wet shirt off, only to become acutely aware of the gaze that was practically burning into her. The bruiser started to ask the mage to look away or something, but it occurred to her that that was ridiculous.

They were both girls, after all. And it wasn't like Annie would be seeing anything inappropriate.

Still, she thought she heard an intake of breath as the shirt came off to reveal a sleek form that years of crime fighting had toned… But that was ridiculous. She must have been imagining things.

She turned her back on her guest and reached behind her to unhook her bra, pulling a roomy t-shirt over her head, the fabric luxuriously soft from a multitude of washes. Vi was about to unbutton her pants when the doorbell chimed and Emma's disembodied voice announced, "Your purchase has arrived, madam."

"That was quick."

Downstairs, there was a stocky teenager at the door, panting slightly from his recent run. He beamed when he saw the bruiser, presenting the object in his hands with a flourish. "That'll be 30 credits, lady."

"Here's 50. Thanks, kid."

She closed the door on his pleased grin and headed back upstairs.

x-x-x

The Dark Child knew she should have looked away the moment Vi started undressing, but the bruiser hadn't seemed to give a damn either way.

And that was all the invitation Annie needed to look (and look and look), the mind-numbing fear that had just had her in a chokehold melting away to make room for the surge of heat and longing that swept through her.

Oh dear Ifrit, patron of flames and destruction— the pinkette had a body.

She was lean and muscular in the sleek, deadly way a panther was while still possessing the wonderfully soft curves that a woman should and, when she turned her back, electric green eyes trailed down her spine to the curve of her rear,—a glorious sight in those tight leather pants— the mage biting her plump bottom lip to stop a happy sigh from leaving her.

This crush was getting out of hand.

Annie was shaken from her thoughts by the sound of the doorbell and she felt rather disappointed when Vi pulled on an oversized t-shirt that hid her curves from view and went to answer it.

In fact, a growl left her when the older woman left the room—a thunderous, intimidating sound that could only be the shadow bear she carried around within her.

"Behave," she warned her familiar. The lightning and thunder unsettled him as well, making him shift restlessly and flex his claws.

With a sigh, the young woman adjusted the strap of her sheer baby blue nighty (the stupid thing kept sliding down her shoulder; the feather couldn't be _that _heavy, could it?) and settled back into the nest of pillows that had been piled in front of the headboard. The bed was large and really comfy, the silk sheets an inky black sporting a rusty brown pattern of clockwork gears.

"Oi, scoot." At the sudden command, Annie jumped a little and pouted, but did as she was told. Vi sat next to her and held out whatever it was she had bought. "Here."

"…"

"Well?" she demanded gruffly. "You gonna take it or just stare like a—_Oomph!_"

Joy coursed through the mage, momentarily eclipsing any sort of sensibleness she possessed, and she tackled the pinkette, sending her gift sailing to the foot of the bed, covering the stunned warrior's face with affectionate, grateful kisses and murmuring "Thank you…!" in a hushed, awed tone between each one.

It wasn't just the gift, it was everything—the kindness Vi had expressed in her own way since day one, the way she seemed to be a bit more careful because she knew her words and actions had an actual effect on the younger girl, and even the grudging way the pinkette put up with her affectionate gestures.

It took a moment for the overwhelming glee to die down enough for Annie's brain to reengage and her actions to register. When they did, she sat bolt upright, horror crawling across her conscience like some sort of many-legged bug.

Before the flood of apologies managed to push its way out of her mouth, however, she took in the flushed cheeks of the bruiser in question; noted the way Vi seemed unable to meet her gaze, the muscles in her neck clearly defined—as though she was trying very hard not to make a sound.

Curious.

The pinkette didn't look like she wanted to toss the girl out on the streets like Annie thought she would. She just looked… torn.

So much so that the red-head cupped her cheek, horror forgotten, gently encouraging azure orbs to meet her own. The light in them was _indecent_—a hot, wet kick right to the loins—and Annie gasped, captivated.

At the almost inaudible sound, a wretched mixture of shame and disgust filled the pinkette's gaze and she snapped them shut, her eyebrows meeting.

"Fuck." The word was muttered, a sharp, hard exclamation laced with too many emotions for Annie to pick out just one.

"Vi…"

"Get away from me, Annie. I'm so fucked up."

The loathing in that statement made the mage's heart ache. "No, you aren't..."

Her eyes opened at that, dark with anger. "You're kidding, right? I'm supposed to be your friend. You're living here with me because you have nowhere else to go and here I am, looking at you like a slab of meat. Fuck sake, Annie, you're just a…"

She stopped, but her intended statement was clear. "A kid," the red-head completed quietly.

Vi averted her gaze again, nodding curtly. "Sorry."

"No, _I'm_ sorry." At the older woman's confused look, the mage's lips curved into an amused smile. "You were born in a world where science and logic rules—where magic is merely a weak, inconclusive explanation for what human beings cannot comprehend rather than a way of life. And because of that, you don't trust what's before your very eyes because it's a feat your precious technology could never achieve, no matter how advanced."

"Tch. Listen—"

"Vi it's time for _you _tolisten," she argued gently. When she reached for one of the bruiser's hands, she wasn't met with any resistance, just a questioning look. That look was quickly replaced with an astonished one when the mage lifted her hand to cup the pale swell of a breast, just barely contained by the low-cut front of her nightgown. "Tell me, do I _feel _like a child to you?"

She could feel the muscles in the hand she held flex minutely even as the pinkette spluttered something nonsensical, her cheeks going a faint shade of pink.

Who knew the hardass warrior could be so… cute?

"Would a mere child lust for you as well?"

Vi groaned, closing her eyes again and tilting her head back. "Fuck, Annie… This is _wrong_."

It was the closest thing to a surrender vote she was going to get and the Dark Child capitalized on the lowering of the other woman's defenses, leaning in and cautiously pressing a kiss to the exposed skin of Vi's throat. When the pinkette made a low sound and turned her head to the left, the red-head flicked her tongue out, tracing it over the circle within a golden gear that served as Piltover's insignia that had been inked there and earning another sound—this one definitely pleasurable.

That large yet dainty hand cupped her breast, kneading firmly, tweaking her nipples through the thin fabric, and the mage whimpered as pleasure seared her senses much in the manner of the flames she loved so much. There was that curious rush of heat between her legs again, unlike any sensation the girl had ever experienced before, and she clenched her thighs together, meeting Vi's gaze.

At her silent question, the bruiser nodded, eyes heavy lidded, and Annie leaned in the rest of the way to touch their lips together; the first, gentle contact made a purr (since when had she been able to make _that _sound?) rumble in the mage's chest and she reveled in the soft, supple press of the bruiser's lips against her own. She sat up, reeling slightly from the gravity of what she had just done.

She, Annie Hastur, had kissed _Vi—_the badass bruiser babe who didn't give two shits about anyone or anything else.

The spell-caster leaned in again, exchanging gentle, lingering pecks with the pinkette who, up to that point, had seemed content to let her do what she wished. Testing that theory, Annie slid her hands under the hem of the warrior's baggy shirt, sliding it up to reveal the taut, pale perfection that she had been ogling earlier, her breath catching in her throat as Vi sat up and allowed her to remove the article completely.

"Like what you see, Princess?"

Nothing she had read could ever prepare her for the frenzied maelstrom of heat and yearning that assaulted her slim form.

The girl nodded, her eyes raking over the bruiser's torso as she tried very hard to commit it to memory. She bit her lip, worrying the flesh with her teeth as she traced her finger tips almost reverently over velvety skin, along the swell of a breast and between, up to the pinkette's collar bones.

And Vi released a pained groan. "You're killing me, kid."

When she said 'kid' like _that_—in that throaty, urgent husk—Annie couldn't find a reason to complain. Before she could ask what the older woman meant, long fingers slid into her hair and pulled her in, those soft lips pressing into hers with a hunger that only served to fan her smoldering arousal into a full-on flame.

The moment the bruiser's tongue darted out to lap at the seam of her lips, the mage released a startled, pleased sound, allowing the warm, wet muscle to slide into her mouth; it darted teasingly against hers before swirling devilishly, a skillful dance partner that Annie did her best to mimic. Her efforts were rewarded with a soft sound of approval, the pinkette's fingers tightening in her hair, guiding her onto her back as the older woman moved to straddle her.

And, just like that, Annie found herself completely at the bruiser's mercy, bliss washing over her senses like a gentle, scorching tide as skilled lips and tongue dominated her oral cavern. A strong hand returned to her breast, cupping and kneading, and she found herself arching, silently asking for more.

"_Ah…!_" the mage moaned as a powerful thigh slid between hers, bunching up the hem of her dress, and her hips moved of their own volition to create more friction. More sounds left her—throaty, ecstatic, and downright lewd. The contact felt good—so unbelievably good—and she began grinding against the woman in earnest, dark green eyes becoming hazy and unfocused as her brain short-circuited, mental processes grinding to a halt. All that mattered was the deep, throbbing satisfaction she gained from rubbing up against the other woman.

She couldn't even fathom that this was merely foreplay—that the main act would feel even better.

A firm grip stilled her hips and she released a frustrated growl, her ears lying flat against the top of her head. It took her eyes a moment to focus: Vi was staring at her, expression awed.

… Had she done something strange?

Embarrassment coloured the mage's cheeks as her actions once again registered at a delayed pace and she opened her mouth to apologize, but the bruiser leaned in and whispered into a pointed ear, her voice coming out in breathy little pants, "You. Are. So. Fucking. Adorable."

A mewl left the girl's throat, her ears proving to be hypersensitive, and Vi made a low sound in response, crushing their lips together with no trace of the gentleness that she had displayed up until then.

And Annie loved it.

Husky, eager sounds left the mage and she rolled her hips, molding the length of her body against the taller woman's; the warmth of the pinkette's bare torso made her head spin, a steady, insistent pulsating between her legs encouraging her to take Vi's hand again and guide it south.

"Please…"

She wasn't quite sure what she was asking for, but the bruiser seemed to understand, deft fingers nudging aside the soaked fabric of her underwear and sliding across slick, sensitive flesh.

'_Oh dear Ifrit…'_

The grinding before was nothing compared to _this—_this direct contact with her aching sex.

A high pitched cry left the mage and Vi's darkened gaze wavered.

A blink. "Annie…" Blink, blink, blink. "Fuck." She retracted her hand, earning a disappointed sound from the red-head, and sat up, her chest straining as she breathed, hard. "I've never lost control like that before. I can't…" Her gaze was wide, wild.

When Annie sat up, her strap slipping from her shoulder once again, it became even wilder.

"What're you doing to me?" Vi growled, raking a hand through short pink hair. She seemed to remember where that hand had been moments before because she flinched, her entire body going tense.

The Dark Child tilted her head, wordlessly leaning forward and planting an affectionate kiss on the bruiser's cheek. She wrapped her arms around the older woman, loving the silken slide of skin against skin.

"I want you," she said simply.

No more silently wishing and wanting. Morgana was right.

"You shouldn't."

"No?"

"No."

Annie smiled, stroking her fingers along the curve of the bruiser's spine. "I never did like doing what I 'should'."

Vi groaned. "You're not going to let this go, are you?"

How could she? "I want you," she repeated. "And you want me." She was sure of that now.

"I—" she started to say, then seemed to change her mind. "I… shouldn't."

The mage grinned, tugging the bruiser closer. At first, the pinkette resisted, but then she gave in, slumping into the younger woman's body.

"You wanna know a secret?" the Dark Child asked, stroking the shorn part of the older woman's punk hairdo. It was baby soft beneath her fingertips.

"Mm?" Despite herself, the pinkette leaned into her housemate's touch.

"I'm very good at getting what I want."

"Not much of a secret." She sounded unimpressed. "I already knew that."

The spell-caster laughed and gave the other woman a squeeze. "So quit being so stubborn. In the end…" She walked her fingertips across Vi's bare shoulders and was rewarded with a shudder. "I'll get what I want."

"No fair," the warrior husked. But she didn't seem particularly upset despite the complaint.

A yawn left the mage before she could help it and it occurred to her that it was quite late. Her eyelids suddenly felt very heavy. "'All is fair in love and war'," she quipped, yawning again.

"Bed time, Princess."

When the bruiser made as though to sit up, Annie tightened her grip. "Can we stay like this a little while longer?"

"… Yeah."

x-x-x

Vi groaned irritably as consciousness slowly came to her. She had fallen asleep in her friggin pants and now she felt stiff and—

And there was an arm slung over her bare side.

The memory of the night—or early morning, really—before crashed into her with all the gentleness of a runaway train, and she very nearly bolted out of bed. The bruiser swore quietly, her body reacting to the memory just as powerfully as it had in the moment: wet heat pooled between her legs, and a steady, longing throbbing made her whimper quietly.

As luck would have it, Annie stirred and stretched, unwittingly (?!) pressing the length of her soft, warm body along Vi's.

'_Aaaaaaaand morning "wood." Fucking great.'_

"Breakfast," she mumbled, her hands skimming down towards the waistband of the pinkette's pants.

The taller woman tensed, the part of her that was very horny and very displeased about that fact warring with her steadily weakening conscience.

When the mage's questing appendages slipped into those tight pants, slim fingers pressing into hypersensitive flesh through a thin layer of lace, the pinkette yelped, actually falling to the floor in her haste to create space between herself and the vixen that she had willingly let into her bed the night before.

Great. Now her ass hurt on top of everything.

Annie snorted with laughter and the bruiser glared. "Fuck sake. Would you behave yourself?"

Damn if it didn't feel odd being the one to request that of anyone. The mage was turning her world upside down.

"Sorry, sorry," the red-head laughed. Her eyes sparkled playfully, enchantingly. "Want me to kiss it better?"

The thought of those pouty lips anywhere near… down there…

Vi shook her head violently to dislodge the thought before it could complete itself. She caught sight of the object the spell-caster had been cradling between their bodies and asked, "You like him?"

Immediately, the girl's expression became tender and the bruiser's heart made a curious little skip-hop. "I love him." She cuddled the plushy brown teddy bear against her bosom and it occurred to Vi that she was suddenly feeling envious of a _stuffed animal_.

'_Ugh…' _

This was getting out of hand—whatever it was.

"Right… So I'll get breakfast started."

"Pancakes?"

She chuckled at the excitement in those bright green eyes, instinctively leaning in and pressing a kiss to the younger woman's temple. "Alright, pancakes it is."

As she exited her own room, _happy _to prepare breakfast for the young mage who had no business being there, the realization sunk in that Annie had taken up residence not only in her home… But in her heart.

The sentiment, as unfamiliar as it was, had the pinkette staggering; she pressed her back against the solid wood of the door for comfort, sliding down into a seated position.

'_Holy fuck…' _

After all of that protesting and fretting, and-and _soul searching_, Vi could only come to one conclusion. Try as she might, there was no helping it, no running away from this dirty little secret any longer.

She actually had feelings for Annie Hastur.

**-End Chapter-**

I don't know about you guys, but the first thing that comes up when I enter "God" and "fire" into my mental search engine is "Ifrit." The creature is not mine, of course, merely borrowed from years of Final Fantasy because I needed a deity for my dear mage.

Oh, and I'll explain Caitlyn's relationship with her parents in a different fic entirely. Let's focus on Vi and Annie, shall we?


	6. Dreams and a Green-eyed Monster

A note… _Justice_ takes place a couple of years prior to _Taunt_. They're loosely connected: _Justice_ sets up Kayle's and Morgana's continued relationship. Also, I apologize to Jayce fans… He's somewhat of a hapless male here. Haha~

I'm glad you're still around, Vanity :3

**-Dreams and a Green-eyed Monster -**

_/ Deep below the mage city—lower than even the lava-filled room where Fenrir had once slept—a gathering consisting of Champions affiliated with Noxus was meeting around a huge table—seven in all._

_Upon seating himself, the first person to speak was a gaunt man with a rather impressive mustache: "Remind me again why we're here? Draven's got places to be, people to see."_

_There was a murmur of agreement and Swain gave the lot of them a quelling look. _

"_Let the man speak," Darius, a fellow general, commanded. His face was weary, drawn, a streak of gray running through his hair from the temple despite the fact that he was only in his early 40's. He was Draven's brother, though the two couldn't be any more different if they tried._

"_You're here because I believe I have discovered a power strong enough to turn the tides of our war with Demacia."_

_Another ripple of voices, this one incredulous. _

"_What madness are you blabbering on about this time, Jericho?" the half woman, half serpent hybrid seated between a pallid, bored looking young man in clothes suited for a much earlier time period and a striking red-head with a thin scar running across her left eye demanded. She was Cassiopeia from the influential Du Couteau family, a former temptress that had learned the hard way that honesty was indeed the best policy. _

_The red-head to her left—her sister, Katarina, the famous assassin known as the Sinister Blade— scoffed. She was spinning one of her daggers idly between her fingers. "I've heard that claim before. But then it turned out Morgana was a wild card."_

"_Tch. While Morgana's refusal to serve her state is disturbing, I have found a mage that could surpass even the Fallen Angel."_

"_Who?" The speaker was a violet-haired spell-caster with an elaborate, three-pronged headdress and a strappy top that left very little to the imagination. LeBlanc, the Deceiver, was an incredible nuke, so she loved testing her mettle against other casters. "There was no recently-recruited AP Caster… Unless you know something we don't, Swain."_

"_Yes, tell us," the pale man to Cassiopeia's right drawled. As he drummed his fingers on the cold, hard surface of the table, little droplets of crimson formed on his fingertips, staining the stone—a hemomancer._

"_Annie Hastur."_

_There was a deafening silence. Then, LeBlanc scoffed. "While the child possesses exceptional damage output, I would hardly say that she is capable of the same magical magnitude that Morgana is."_

"_And what if I told you she was now?"_

"_What changed?" the venomous mage inquired. "To my knowledge, there are only two things that can permanently enhance magical potential: dangerous, life-threatening experimentation and time. The Dark Child has potential, but she's only a mere child, as her title implies. So, unless a Zaunite got a hold of her…"_

_Katarina snickered._

"_You are correct, Cassiopeia. I'm uncertain of what sparked this change in our dear little runaway, but I can assure you that it is very real. Annie Hastur is a force to be reckoned with in her current state."_

_Draven, who had been silent up to that point, frowned. "So… You want her to fight for us."_

"_She is the property of Nexus. You do recall the lovely couple—Gregori and Amoline?"_

"_Ah, yes. She possessed wonderfully dark magicks," the pale man, Vladimir, sighed. "A shame she was such a fool."_

"_Well, Amoline was the young Hastur's mother and Gregori her father. Both fled Noxus during the Exodus and paid for their betrayal with their lives. It would only be fitting that their daughter served the way they did not."_

"_And how exactly do you intend to get a child to fight on a battlefield? This isn't Runeterra—she would be slaughtered on sight by the Demacian scum. Not to mention the fact that Noxus would become a laughingstock for resorting to using children to fight our battles," Darius interrupted._

_The Master Tactician smiled, the rare, sinister expression catching the gathered Champions completely off-guard. "You just leave that to me." /_

Annie gasped, sitting bolt upright.

The delicate, silvery strands of her dream dissolved instantly and she scowled, trying desperately to recapture them.

If only she could hear her thoughts over the sound of her own frantic heartbeat.

"Bad dream again?" Vi mumbled, her voice husky with sleep.

"Y-yes."

For the past week and a half, it had been one nightmare after the other, each more worrisome than the last and yet she _still _couldn't remember them the moment she awoke.

"Shit, don't cry." She sounded more awake now and Annie saw her vague form shift in the dark, arms wrapping around her and pulling her into warmth and concern. "I hate it when you cry."

She sniffed. "Sorry. I just… It's driving me crazy. I feel as though these dreams mean something, but I can't crack the code."

"You told me you felt like you were in danger."

The red-head nodded. "And it gets worse with each dream. It's as if something's looming over me, waiting to strike."

"Nothing's going to hurt you while I'm around, Annie." Lips pressed against her temple and, oddly enough, the spell-caster was comforted. "I'll protect you."

"You promise?"

"I promise."

* * *

"Pleeeeeeease?"

"No."

"Pretty please?"

"I already told you _no_, Annie. Now fuck off."

Something was eating Vi—she wasn't normally this short with the mage.

"What's the matter, grumpy?" She knew that scowl: the pinkette had something on her mind that she wasn't about to share it. Instead of pursuing the matter, the Dark Child looped her arms around the bruiser's neck and pulled her in, brushing their lips together affectionately. "I'll be on my best behavior, I promise. I'm just so bored cooped up in the house."

Azure orbs developed that distracted, hungry light and the spell-caster grinned, indulging in a deeper, more satisfying kiss—one that was quickly escalated when Vi slid long fingers into her hair and angled her head so that she could dominate the red-head's all too willing mouth with her talented tongue.

Before Annie could take advantage of the older woman's sudden fervor, the pinkette broke away, an expression on her face that was almost sheepish but couldn't be because this was _Vi_.

"Er, you can go out. Just take the mongrel with you and be careful. Here." She opened a drawer in the island and handed the girl a shiny gold watch: the crystal face revealed hands that were delicately wrought silver, fixed above the intricate copper clockwork that powered it.

It was beautiful. "Thank you…"

Vi nodded mutely and stalked off, a new tenseness to her shoulders.

The bruiser was _clearly _frustrated, so why was she still turning the mage down?

* * *

Fenrir didn't seem too happy about the leash, but it was a necessary evil—the way the City of Progress's inhabitants kept eyeing him made it clear that pets weren't a common sight around these parts.

He was currently a lean, wolf-like Alaskan Malamute with a pure white pelt, the top of his broad head even with the girl's waist… Maybe _that _was what was making people nervous.

Annie shook off the niggling concern, choosing instead to take in the gleaming city: the looming buildings cast huge shadows from the afternoon sun, hover cars drifted lazily overhead, and the sidewalk was littered with people in all manner of dress from elegant gowns and powdered wigs to grimy, oil-stained rags, to top hats and metallic suits, some striding purposefully and others meandering idly.

She felt as though she could live here all her life and still be astonished by the incredible diversity of the city's denizens' apparel.

"Where should we go first, Fen?"

"I would advise that you remain within the city limits," Emma's voice said suddenly from somewhere near her side. Annie started and instinctively whirled around before lifting her arm: the face of the watch on her wrist had lit up with a gentle white-blue light, obscuring its innards, and she could see a dark silhouette of the A.I.'s profile. "Apologies, I didn't intend to scare you."

"It's fine," she said absently. So _that _was the reason behind the unexpected gift. "Vi didn't tell me you were able to, um, visit me through this."

"Madam decided that you required my services more than she does during your little outing. She's cut off all communications with me and left the house with the Sheriff." The last bit was said disapprovingly and Annie agreed wholeheartedly with the sentiment—though likely for a very different reason.

She didn't like the way Vi and Caitlyn got along so well. After all, the brusque brunette was a stunner and the bruiser _did _seem to like bossy girls if the persona her A.I had adopted was anything to go by.

Tibbers growled disapprovingly in response to the spike of emotion and Fenrir's ears flattened worrisomely against his skull.

"The city is huge," she commented, more to distract herself from her thoughts than anything. "I'm not even sure where to begin."

Just leaving the floating borough that the penthouse sat upon alone had taken almost half an hour of riding in a glass-walled elevator that allowed for an amazing view of the city's lower levels as it slid smoothly down dozens of levels to the core of the city where commerce and technological research thrived.

"Perhaps I can assist you." Emma's silhouette disappeared and a pale yellow projection of what appeared to be all of the sectors by level took her place—seven in all. The middle one blinked red and then grew in size and the other sectors dissolved into lines of code, several markers that resembled push pins sprouting up in different areas. "How would you like to refine your search?"

Electric green orbs widened, fascinated, and she reached out hesitantly to press her finger against one of the markers; she was presented with a list of places, each with its own miniature scale model of the real thing, and a menu that allowed her to narrow down her search by distance, establishment type, and current amount of patrons. The mage selected "type" and then "entertainment."

After a moment, Emma asked, "A… library?"

Annie smiled sheepishly. "I've missed reading and the books from my world can't enter this one."

The map flickered off and the A.I appeared in its place, her head tilted inquisitively. "Ah, then may I make a suggestion?"

* * *

This was…

Words didn't begin to describe.

Annie was getting dizzy from whipping her head around in an attempt to see everything at once. The Piltover National Archive (the PNA, as the inhabitants called it) was an almost limitless collection of text both physical and digital located in the heart of the city. It was shaped like a beehive, suspended high above the Techmaturgical Laboratories from a suspension bridge that connected Piltover to Old Piltover—the segment of the city that still ran on electricity rather than plasma and used cars that drove on the ground rather than through the air.

Emma had sternly advised her to stay away from the area as it was the one place that the Sheriff hadn't yet worked her crime-stopping mojo.

The inside of the PNA kept up the appearance of a beehive: each section lining the walls was shaped like a honeycomb and every cell was loaded with "an estimated hundred thousand files each" according to the A.I.

"How do you get up there?" the mage breathed, tilting her head back to look at the higher cells.

In answer to her question, Emma made a mechanized chirp and the floor beneath Annie's feet creaked, a hexagonal section of it rising up towards the ceiling at a speed that made the girl lurch and nearly fall. Another tile slid into the now vacant spot with a _'click'._

"Ah, apologies." Steel railing rose out of the tile to surround the red-head and the miniature version of the A.I was projected above it. "What subject are you interested in? The Archive holds information on anything from hextech technology to—"

"Romance," she answered immediately, blushing slightly when Emma turned to look at her.

"You're a curious child." Nonetheless, the tile changed direction, veering smoothly in the desired direction.

Nearly an hour later, the Dark Child emerged from the building with as many books as she could carry.

Fenrir barked to greet her from the out-of-the-way corner where he had been commanded to sit and it was then that Annie realized that he wasn't alone.

Jayce straightened and turned to face whoever the animal was making such a fuss about, a broad grin spreading across his handsome face when he saw Annie. "I know you…"

"Y-you do?" She took an unconscious step backwards. There was no way the bruiser recognized her… Her hand went to the feather pinned to her breast—yep, it was still there.

"You're Vi's friend." Before she could breathe a sigh of relief, he was offering to carry her books for her, refusing to take 'no' for an answer. "That's a beautiful dog you have. Quite a rare sight around here."

The red-head nodded. "I've noticed."

"I'm Jayce, by the way." He easily hefted the huge pile of tomes in one hand and offered the other to shake.

"Anna." She clasped his hand, flinching when he bent down to kiss the back of it.

"Charmed." He grinned again and she found herself at a loss for words. She had never been treated like this before and she hadn't expected to be—especially not by someone she knew from Runeterra. "That headband is really cute—it suits you."

This was really quite disconcerting.

"Thank you."

"Where are you headed?" the Defender of Tomorrow questioned. "My hover car's right over there. I could give you a lift."

"Um…"

"That's none of your concern," Emma said sharply.

Jayce blinked. "Wait, that voice sounds familiar… Emma, was it?"

"Hmph."

The brunette's brow furrowed. "Why do _you _have Vi's A.I? Users don't typically share."

"That's because humans are jealous creatures," a new voice said from the sizeable hammer strapped across the man's back.

"Now, now, there's no need to be like that, Lauren."

'Lauren,' as she was called, scoffed. "It's the truth."

"Er, sorry. This is my A.I, Lauren. She's a little cynical, but her processor's in the right place."

"_Hmph_."

Annie was beginning to think that the Piltovian heroes had a thing for the Sheriff.

"I guess that means you're staying with the Enforcer?"

"Yes. We're roommates."

"Huh. How is that working out for you? You seem so delicate and she's so… Vi."

The red-head resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "I love it. Vi's the best."

"So I hear."

The way he said it made her curious. "From?"

"Caitlyn, of course. Those two are inseparable, despite all her fussing."

So Jayce had noticed as well. "They're partners. They have to get along."

Jayce sighed. "I know. But it feels like more than that sometimes. The Sheriff doesn't put up with anyone's funny business, but Vi could level an entire sector and get away with a slap on the wrist."

He had a point. Something heavy shifted in the pit of her stomach and Tibbers rumbled ferociously. She should really summon him before he went stir-crazy, but Vi had told her no magic—no exceptions.

"Whoa, was that your dog?"

"His name is Fenrir."

"Fenrir. Sorry." He studied her for a moment. "Are you okay? You seem kind of down all of a sudden."

"We should be going," Emma chimed. "Thank you so much for your assistance."

Annie reclaimed her books, smiling apologetically at the tall brunette before starting towards the elevator back to the upper levels.

"Wait!" Jayce came jogging over, a determined look on his face. "Anna, would you do me the honor of being my date tonight to the Sympho-Electric Orchestra? If you like music, you'll love this."

The mage hesitated, once again uncertain of how to react to such a situation. She didn't want to be rude and she _did _like music—it was one of the things she had explored a lot of while being cooped up in the house, and she knew from experience that Piltover's music was funky and elegant all at once.

Besides, with the way she had been acting, it was clear that Vi wanted the spell-caster out of her hair.

She didn't see the way the face of her watch flashed a brilliant scarlet with the targeting cursor that appeared at its center.

x-x-x

Piltover's Finest were sitting in the ritzy parlor Caitlyn had had added to her penthouse for the purpose of entertaining guests—an explosion of pale, pastel colours and elegant wrought-iron furniture.

"Vanessa, fetch us something to drink."

"At your command," the unnaturally tall, blond android responded duly. She curtsied before leaving, the ruffled hem of her traditional, black Victorian dress whispering around her feet with each measured step.

Vi watched the A.I walk off—it was curious to see one in its physical form since Emma was almost always digital. The Sheriff preferred her robotic companion in this state simply because she didn't tend to tote the program around the way the bruiser did.

Then again, Vanessa was a little… Stiff. Unlike Emma, who had adapted a personality of her own, Caitlyn's A.I still performed under factory settings.

"What did you want to speak to me about?" the aforementioned brunette queried.

Vi raised a perfectly arched eyebrow. "'scuse me?"

"You claimed this visit was to acquire an android like Vanessa with the immense sum of money you inexplicably acquired, but something's clearly bothering you. Are you going to spit it out or do I have to play good cop, bad cop?"

Damn Cait and her knowing smiles and uncanny hypotheses. The detective was sharper than even her tone when chewing out a hapless employee.

"Tch. I have a slight problem."

Her eyebrows drew together. "What did you do _now?_"

"Nothing! Geez, woman. I've been on my best behavior, you know."

She settled down a bit. "Is this about Anna, then?"

The pinkette felt her cheeks get hot and scowled at the reaction. "How'd you…?"

"Your new roommate seems to be the main thing on your mind of late. What created this 'problem'?"

For a moment, Vi was tempted to tell her partner everything—the magical charm, the inexplicable attraction, the moral struggle—so she did. She wasn't one for resisting temptation… Except when it came to Annie, it seemed.

By the time the bruiser had finished speaking, Vanessa had returned with freshly squeezed lemonade and she accepted the glass gratefully, tipping it to her head and allowing the cool liquid to soothe her parched throat. She nearly spit out a mouthful of the bittersweet substance when Caitlyn said, "I'm not surprised you've found yourself in the middle of such a complicated situation yet again, as astonishing as your tale is. I _am_ surprised that you haven't taken her to bed yet."

"What the fuck is _that _supposed to mean?"

A shrug. "You're not one to hesitate when it comes to getting what you want. Also, you can be quite charming when you put your mind to it and you're not bad to look at—don't let that go to your head."

Too late. The pinkette smirked. "That's sweet of ya, Cupcake."

"Hmph. So she's here, in Piltover, right now?"

"Yeah. She wanted to see the city, so I sent Emma with her."

The sniper's brows rose. "You… user-split Emma?"

She didn't like that tone. "Yeah. She's in an older version of those fancy hextech watches and not too happy about it. Why?"

Caitlyn laughed. "Oh, nothing. I used to think you were like a big kid who didn't like to share her toys, but apparently I'm just not the right playmate." She crossed her legs primly, reclining in her chair. "So, you're sure that your sudden—not to mention _late_—development of a moral compass is all that's bothering you?"

Okay, she didn't like _that_ tone either—as though the brunette knew something she didn't.

"What else could be buggin' me?"

"You tell me."

Azure orbs met hazel and the two stared at each other for a long, silent moment.

It was Vi who looked away first, hunching her shoulders and mumbling something to the floor.

"Sorry?"

"I think I might…"

"'Might'…?"

"_Like_ her."

"Who?"

"Fuck sake, Cait, don't play dumb!"

The Sheriff smiled, amused by the fact that she wasn't the one getting flustered and impatient for once. "Okay. So you 'like' her."

Vi groaned. "A lot."

"How much is a lot?" The bruiser made a vague gesture and she chuckled. "I'm not quite sure what that means."

"Ugh. I…"

"Interesting. This must really be bothering you—I've never seen you so hesitant about, well, _anything _before."

'_Ugh…!'_

"I just… My heart does this weird flip-floppy shit whenever she hugs me and… Stuff. It's fucking annoying. And I feel like punching the lights out of every fucker who looks at her funny. Since when did I become a friggin' bulldog?"

Caitlyn shook her head at the crass nature of the other woman's language—there was the Vi she knew. "I don't think that's just protectiveness…"

"Then what is it?" the pinkette demanded, her expression daring the sniper to say what was on her mind.

They both knew the answer to that question and it was one that Vi clearly didn't like. "You aren't one to become attached to others," the brunette began diplomatically. "So to say that Annie is important to you is a bit of an understatement."

"Tch. I'm close to _you_." It was said grudgingly—like a child admitting that their parent had been correct.

A gentle smile. "That you are. But it's different with Annie, isn't it?"

Completely. With Annie, it was… She didn't even know how to classify the things the mage made her feel. Just being around the young woman made her want to run around like an idiot while screaming her head off and punch walls and hold her and kiss her and take her over and over until she wouldn't be able to consider even _touching _someone else and yell some more and-and—

Vi shook her head crossly. "The fuck should I know?" When she received a flat, unimpressed look, the warrior relented, "Everything about the kid is different. I feel like I wouldn't know what to do with myself if she wasn't around and she practically forced her way into my life in the first place." Here, her expression softened and Caitlyn hid a smile. "She's always been a blast to hang around with, even when she was just a twerp, but now… I _want _to spend time with her. Now, I'm happy if _she's _happy and I'm even happier when I'm the reason she's happy… You know?"

When the sniper laughed again, a mirthful, cheery sound, Vi was a little confused. What was so funny? One look at her expression made the laughter grow louder and she smacked her palm on the glass table between them, clutching at her side. Finally, the episode subsided and the woman wheezed, "This is too precious."

"You mind sharing the joke, Cupcake?"

Caitlyn wiped a tear from the corner of her eye, chuckling. "You, my dear, are in love with Annie Hastur. What's more, you're acting like a sixteen-year old girl with her first crush."

Vi's jaw clenched and she threw a quick jab in the AD Carry's direction, more to blow off steam than to injure; Vanessa was between them in an instant, catching the pinkette's fist with one hand and twisting the offending appendage behind the woman, forcing her out of her chair and to her knees just a moment later.

"Threat neutralized. Orders?"

"Let her up, Vanessa. Vi could hardly be considered a threat."

The android tilted its head almost quizzically, though its features remained unsettlingly blank. "Affirmative. Officer Vi, ID. No. 8762939, identified as non-threatening."

That iron grip loosened and Vi rose to her feet, dusting herself off and rotating her sore shoulder in its socket. "Holy shit, Cait."

Another thing about the Sheriff's A.I's physical body: it was a special army-grade model that was virtually indestructible, capable of incredible feats of strength, knew combat basics from a variety of different schools of martial arts… and cost an arm and a leg. But that sort of power was exactly what the bruiser needed to make sure that Annie was safe even when she couldn't be around, no matter the cost.

She had made a promise, after all.

"Sorry." Laughter danced in hazel eyes—the sniper was having a field day and at _her_ expense. "Are you injured?"

"Just my pride," she muttered, plopping back down on the dainty chair.

"Oh good. Vanessa, please start dinner. My mother is visiting."

"At once."

As the android exited the room, Vi asked, "Your old man still too busy to see you?"

"He has a lot on his plate," the brunette said quietly. Her shoulders had drooped and there was an almost forlorn air about her even as she forced a smile. "So what will you do about your young Hastur?"

As if on cue, the communicator on the bruiser's collar released a shrill tone.

"Madam, you won't like this."

Suddenly, Vi's blood had been replaced with ice. One would think with the way her heart was pounding that it would become hotter, not colder. "What happened?"

"Jayce just asked Annie to the Sympho-electric orchestra tomorrow evening."

"That idiot will ask any pretty girl out," the pinkette snorted dismissively.

"She accepted."

Ah, there we go. Now her blood was _boiling_. "… Where are they?"

* * *

"Vi, you need to calm down," Caitlyn insisted, jogging to keep up with the taller woman's furious stride.

"Not on your life, Cupcake." She twisted her vambraces, engaging her hextech gauntlets and cracking her knuckles as the metal spread out to cover them. Sharp azure eyes caught sight of the pair parting ways at the elevator between levels and a wild, terrifying grin spread across her face. "Hey, Jayce!"

The Defender of Tomorrow looked around upon hearing his name, realizing a split second too late that there was a thin red laser pointing directly at the center of his chest. He managed to get his Mercury Hammer up between his self and the giant fist that had been careening towards him at Mach speed, but Vi merely yanked the weapon from his hands and grabbed him by the front of his shirt, her eyes glittering dangerously. She drew her fist back—

"_Power Slam!"_

—and sent the man soaring, his impromptu flight brought to a sudden, painful halt by the metal wall of a building.

"_Vi!" _Caitlyn snapped.

"V-Vi?" Annie gasped.

"You." She jabbed her thumb over her shoulder. "In the car. Now." She looked to the sniper as her roommate obediently scampered away. "I'll accept my punishment or whatever later. I have something to settle."

Then, she whipped around and stormed off without waiting for the brunette to gather her thoughts, leaving Jayce to groan weakly from where he had slid down the wall and slumped. He was a big boy, he'd be fine.

Enough was enough.

* * *

The ride home, albeit short, was tense.

Fenrir whined pitifully, sensing that something was amiss, and sat close at his mistress's heels, his body several sizes smaller so that he could fit in the front seat. The mage was staring down at the books in her lap, her pointed ears flat against her skull.

Neither Champion said a word as Vi parked out front and climbed out of the car, slamming the door behind her. When she was halfway up the path to the front door, a tug on the hem of her jacket stopped her dead in her tracks.

"Are you… mad at me?"

"I could never be mad at you." The sentence was out of her mouth before she could think to stop it.

'_Fuck's sake.'_

Why was she so weak when it came to Annie Hastur—_why_?

The bruiser would be lying if she said that relieved smile didn't make her heart do that stupid fucking somersaulting thing it was so fond of doing. She shrugged Annie off and continued inside, heading straight to her room, tossing her breastplate to the ground, and undoing the larger belt that fitted her corset-like top to her waist.

Now, the problem was: how to proceed? While the bruiser hated pussyfooting around things, she was loathe to just come out and say, "I love you."

_Especially _since this was Annie.

She jumped a foot when a voice questioned, "Were you… Jealous?"

"Of what?" the pinkette snapped, whirling around and taking a step backwards; her rear met the front of her dresser and she realized she was trapped between the proverbial rock and a hard place.

Annie tilted her head, a light that Vi couldn't quite place in electric green orbs. "Jayce."

The name made her bristle. "Why would I be jealous of that meathead?"

"Why'd you hit him?" she countered. When the bruiser only scoffed and looked away, the mage took a step forward, her body as close to the bruiser's as possible without actually touching the woman. "Answer me," she said quietly.

"Do I need a reason to hit things?" It sounded unconvincing, even to her ears.

"Vi…" The way the red-head said it made azure eyes flick to her; the older woman's breath caught in her throat as she registered the desire that smoldered in that darkening gaze. "You have no reason to be jealous of Jayce any more than I have reason to be jealous of Caitlyn."

She was jealous of _Cupcake_? Why?!

"I wasn't—"

"Vi." That sharp, impatient tone made heat blossom between the pinkette's legs and she fidgeted, cheeks flushing. What the fuck was wrong with her? A slow, sexy smile spread across Annie's face and that was just more heat and wet _every_-damn-where. "I want you."

Before the bruiser could say anything, the young woman was slipping between her legs, arms looping around her neck, soft lips pressing against hers with a hunger that was equal parts gentleness, equal parts heat.

It was… odd—asking for permission and demanding what the mage wanted all at once.

And, in the end, Vi could only moan throatily and give into her Princess's desires.

x-x-x

Vi didn't pull away when the kiss got too heated like she usually did, instead allowing Annie's tongue to explore her oral cavern, her own tongue a willing dance partner as smooth wet muscle twisted against smooth wet muscle and the spell-caster actually sighed.

'_Finally.'_

When nimble fingers reached around behind her and unzipped her corset, baring pale skin to the bright afternoon sunlight that poured in through the tall, narrow windows, she didn't stop them and the Dark Child released a pleased purr.

The pinkette wasn't wearing a bra.

She wished there was a way to touch Vi everywhere at once; caressing and cupping—exploring, really—just didn't seem like enough when the bruiser had such a beautiful body to enjoy.

"Bed." That impatient, sex-charged growl made the younger woman shiver.

Annie's eyes went wide as she was swept off her feet, carried across the room, and essentially thrown onto the bed, Vi's body blanketing over hers in the next instant, her lips claiming the mage's and dominating them in a very "punch first, ask questions while punching" sort of way and, for a moment, the red-head allowed herself to be swept away by the swelling tide of passion.

But then she caught herself and twisted her body, swapping their positions so that the startled bruiser was beneath her.

"You need this."

The pinkette's surprised expression melted away, to be replaced by a blissful one as Annie nuzzled into the curve of her jaw, nipping and lapping at sensitive flesh.

Ifrit, she smelled good.

There was a series of electronic tones originating from the intercom overhead and Annie frowned questioningly.

"Decline_," _Vi commanded, tilting her head in silent askance for more attention. The mage gave it eagerly, her exploring lips and tongue making the powerful woman writhe and moan beneath her.

A niggling thought occurred to the girl and she paused, earning a frustrated grunt that made her giggle and press an affectionate kiss to the tattoo on the side of the bruiser's neck. "I never told you that the charm can be made permanent."

Azure orbs were unfocused. "What? How? That's a pretty important thing to forget to mention, Annie."

"Sorry. It's just been so hectic."

When the girl didn't continue, choosing instead to kiss a trail down the column of her throat, the bruiser sighed happily. "Well… What is it?"

The mage sat up, anxious. "We're kind of doing it right now."

"Sex?"

"Y-yeah."

Suddenly, she was on the receiving end of a baleful look. "So you're telling me that if we have sex right now, you'll be like this—" she gestured "—for good?"

"Mhmm…"

"Why the fuck didn't you say that before!?" Her hand was being grabbed and muscled downward, to the front of those tight olive pants. "You're right, Princess, I _do _need this. Hop to it."

The sound of her zipper being undone by Annie's own hand was loud, thrilling.

"Morgana says that…" Her cheeks went red. "Um… She said we both have to reach… 'release'."

She had said so while making some very lewd gestures as her older sister smirked, those cerulean orbs a maelstrom of desire and affection, but Vi didn't need to know that.

"Trust me, Princess, you'll beg me to _stop_ after the sixth or seventh orgasm." That smirk was cocky, playful, and downright sexy. "But do youthink _you're_ up to this?"

Tibbers shifted in response to the challenge and, when she snorted, tiny sparks of flame actually swirled in the air before her. "Try to keep up."

There was that sound again—louder this time.

"Whoever that is, get rid of them, Em," Vi barked, irritated. "Alright, kid, put your money where your mouth i—_Mm_…" The last bit was lost in a soft, pleased sound, the older woman's hips twitching as the mage cupped her sex through the thin fabric of her underwear. When she ground the heel of her palm into the pinkette's clit, that slight twitch became a violent buck coupled with a hiss of pleasure.

Encouraged by her responsiveness, Annie continued the motion, sliding down to where those pretty pink nipples were standing at attention, just begging to be taken into her mouth; she heeded their silent request, lapping around the pebbled areola and along the pale, perfect swell of Vi's breasts before drawing one into her mouth, before closing her lips around the peak.

When she kissed her way over to its neglected twin, the bruiser arched her back, pleased, encouraging sounds pouring from her throat. She cried out when the spell-caster added pressure, the cloth beneath her hand becoming damp with the other woman's juices.

By the time Annie had finished playing with Vi's tits—and even then, the mage felt as though she could keep tweaking and licking and sucking—the pinkette's moans had taken on a hoarse, demanding note. The Dark Child kissed her way down that sleek body, taking time to nip at the gear that had been tatted on the warrior's hip, before coming to the drab olive pants. As she tugged them down to reveal a tiny red pair of panties, she bit her lip.

"Vi…" Annie felt her inner muscles clench fervently.

The front of the scrap of fabric was a shade darker due to the excitement that had pooled between milky thighs.

"C'mon, don't pussy out on me now," the bruiser growled, spreading her legs wide even as her cheeks flushed pink. "Just a little lower…"

The Piltover Enforcer: legs spread invitingly, her mostly bare body covered with a thin sheen of sweat, hair mussed, chest heaving slightly, eyes burning with a ferocious hunger… It was the most beautiful sight Annie had ever seen.

She did as she was told, nudging the fabric aside and slipping her fingers lower to find the soft, pulsating entrance of the pinkette's womanhood. She smirked when the walls clamped eagerly around the gentle intrusion and Vi released a strangled sound.

If what she had read was accurate, it would take no time at all for the woman to reach orgasm.

The first thrust of Annie's fingers into tight, wet warmth made her own rather adequately lubricated sex throb in response, a spark of electric pleasure zipping down her spine towards it.

Oh Ifrit, she just wanted to crawl inside and live there in silken heat.

The mage was shaken from her awe by an urgent, frustrated sound and she began to move her fingers in earnest, pressing up against velvety walls and wriggling her fingertips against them.

"_Fuck… _Just like that, Annie."

Hearing her name being said like _that _made the Dark Child shudder and bite her lip, her pace speeding up.

The sounds Vi made, the way her pale, lean body writhed, and even the way her piercings glinted in the sunlight—was there anything the bruiser could do that she wouldn't find unbelievably seductive?

The sound played a third time—

—"Connect me _NOW!_" Caitlyn's voice snarled suddenly, the walls trembling in response. Annie jumped, her fingers stilling, and the bruiser actually whimpered, a bereft, desperate sound.

"Madam, the Sheriff insists that it's important." If A.I. could cry, Emma would likely be on the verge of tears.

"So fucking close…" Vi groaned. Louder, she snapped, "This had better be pretty fucking important, Cupcake. I—"

"A group of mages recently appeared in Techmaturgical Laboratories without warning. Noxians. They've ransacked Professor Heimerdinger's inventions and are inbound for City Hall as we speak."

The red-head flinched as the bruiser jerked upright, her earlier passion replaced by dead seriousness. "Noxus has always kept out of Piltover… What do they want?"

The sniper hesitated. "… They're asking for Annie."

**-End Chapter-**

Sorry, couldn't resist a cliffie… Or the twat-blocking. x)

See you next time!


	7. Noxians be Crazy

**-Noxians be Crazy-**

"I'm coming with you."

"Absolutely not," Vi snapped, the tone resulting more from the way her core still throbbed desperately than actual annoyance. As she kicked off her retardedly damp pair of underwear, she felt a gaze burning into her and shivered, closing her eyes for a brief, steadying moment. Life seriously sucked sometimes. She pulled on a fresh pair, some dark cargo pants and a tight fitting black tee, strapping her breastplate back on over it. "They're looking for _you_. You might as well draw a huge fucking bullseye on your forehead."

"You know I can help, Vi."

"No." To Emma, she said, "What's the ETA on your upgrade, Em?"

"The Sheriff's contact says that he cannot complete the android without—"

"Whatever he needs, provide it. I don't give a shit about the cost, I need it in an hour or I'm coming down there and dealing with it myself."

"Message recorded. I'll be sure to share it with him."

"Great. After you've suited up, I need you to meet me wherever I am."

"Will do."

"_Vi._"

The bruiser whirled to face Annie, her impatient words catching in her throat when she was met with blazing green orbs. A shadowy figure loomed behind her, its own gaze filled with the same malevolent flame.

'_Shit.'_

"Alright, calm the hell down. You can come, but you have to stay by me at all times. You hear me? This is serious shit, Princess. You could die."

Just saying such a thing made the pinkette's skin crawl. She wouldn't let anything happen to the Dark Child—she _couldn't._

The flames dimmed and the shadows faded, the scowl that creased the red-head's brow relaxing. "Thank you."

"Tch. Don't thank me for letting you put yourself in danger. C'mon."

* * *

"You think you should be in your, er, other form for this?"

The girl shook her head. "He'll recognize me either way."

"'He?'"

"Swain." Her tone was hard, vehement.

"Whoa. What'd the bird man do to you?" Vi had meant it as a joke, but the way the mage's face fell made her heart throb. "Annie?"

"Years after the exodus of the Grey Order, Jericho Swain and his mages visited the colony in order to make an example of the leaders of the defected Noxians. He was the one who gave the order to have my parents slaughtered before my very eyes and my home burned to the ground." She gave a smile that was free of any sort of positive emotion—more a baring of teeth than anything. "He said, "Dispatch these worms." and, suddenly, everything I knew and loved was gone. Everything except Tibbers." She hugged the replacement teddy to her chest, her head drooping so that her bangs covered her eyes. Noxus has been trying to get me to come back for years, but now that I'm much more powerful, I've become a priority."

The pinkette's fists clenched around the steering wheel until they were white-knuckled and she had to take a deep, calming breath before she could unclench her muscles enough to release the object in question. She engaged the autopilot and reached over the console, capturing Annie's hand in hers and lifting the palm to her lips. "We'll kill him."

The Dark Child took a shuddering breath. "I—Thank you…" Her smile was small and weak, but it was a start. "You're amazing."

"Yeah, yeah."

An explosion rocked the vehicle and the bruiser swore, releasing the spell-caster's hand and disengaging the autopilot; she veered off of the grid, weaving between falling chunks of building and nearly crashing into a tree, swearing the entire time.

"… You want me to drive?"

"I've got thi—_Shit!_"

In the split second she had taken her eyes off of the road, a metal gate had reared up in front of the hover car. At their current speed, there was no option other than to crash right through it—

The dark steel burned a cherry red and the entire middle portion dissolved, eaten through by the intense heat of the flames.

—Unless, of course, Annie did _that._

"The offer still stands." A smirk curved her lips.

"Oh, shaddup."

…

There was a flock of mages outside of City Hall, all darkly robed and intimidating in their mysteriousness. Vi screeched to a halt just above the growing gathering and leaped out to land in a crouch, Annie following suit moments later. Jayce was already there and so was Caitlyn, both of whom were standing next to the balding gentleman the bruiser knew to be the governor.

And there was Swain at the head of the procession—though "mob" was likely more accurate. The Master Tactician was garbed in copper-coloured armor with dark green feathers fanning out of the beefy spaulders, his thin lips, the only part of his face that could be seen under an ornate helm, twisted into a sadistic smirk. "You have among you, Governor, property that belongs to Noxus. Return her at once and we will leave your city intact."

The man frowned. "I'm afraid I don't know who you're referring to, General."

A single, clawed finger pointed towards the young woman and Vi bristled.

"I told you," the Dark Child murmured, that note of dejection returning full force. She took a step towards her housemate, placing the bruiser between herself and the man. When Vi rested a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder, the pinkette realized that she was trembling.

Azure eyes met hazel and the Sheriff of Piltover inclined her head, her fingers tightening around her trusty sniper rifle.

Caitlyn wasn't about to let them take Annie either.

The governor squinted near-sightedly at the red-head. "Isabelle, census search."

"Right away, sir," a woman's voice responded from the lapel of his suit. Immediately after, there was a jarring sound. "Query not found."

Vi's hands clenched into fists as the man shook his head. "You aren't from Piltover and are therefore not under The City of Progress's protection. I'm sorry Miss…"

"Annie Hastur," Swain completed helpfully.

Jayce's jaw dropped. "_Annie_?!"

Had this been a different time or place, the pinkette would have likely made fun of the male for being the last horse to cross the finish line—as usual. Instead, she said, "I dunno about you, _sir_, but I'm part of the Piltover PD and I don't intend to let them have Annie."

There was an ominous crack of lightning as two of the mages flanking Swain raised their arms skyward, palms glowing blue-white. A dark cloud eclipsed the sun, bathing Piltover in shadows.

"You may want to rethink your position."

"S-Sheriff, control your subordinate," the mayor squeaked, eyes widening. As a civilian, he had never seen magic before—only heard tales of it.

"I apologize, sir, but I stand with Vi," the sniper responded, leaving his side to stand by her partner's. She winked when the bruiser gave her a grateful smile. "Ezreal's on his way," she said quietly. "And Professor Heimerdinger wants revenge. I believe he said something about reinforcing his turrets first."

Leave it to Cait to have a plan—Vi had just planned on going out fighting by this point.

"We should get you somewhere safe, Governor," Jayce offered, ever the hero. The older man nodded and allowed himself to be lead away.

Thunder rumbled as though in warning and Annie whimpered, her ears lying flat against her head. "Vi…"

"Mm?"

"I don't think we can win this."

"Hey, what kind of attitude is that?"

"The girl is correct." God damn, the bird man had good hearing. He held his hand out as though he expected Vi to hand the young mage over on a silver platter.

The pinkette flipped him off and stuck out her tongue, the vambraces on her wrists glinting wickedly. Her gauntlets wanted blood and she was more than eager to bathe them in it.

Three things happened at once: Swain's eyes glowed a sinister shade of crimson, Caitlyn grabbed the bruiser by her collar and yanked her backwards, the sudden movement sending both her and Annie crashing into the brunette so that they ended up in a pile of limbs, just in time to dodge a wave of light blue energy that zoomed by, shimmering, to crash into the mage entourage; the poor bastards in the front line didn't have time to scream before they evaporated entirely. From overhead, there was a robotic voice: "Pulsefire systems online. All systems operational."

When azure eyes flicked upwards, Vi caught sight of Ezreal soaring high above on a hover board, all decked out in a cybernetic suit. The genius yordle was floating next to him, the jets on a tiny jetpack keeping him aloft.

"I apologize for our tardiness, but I needed to outfit Mr. Ezreal here," the mustachioed midget called down. "And as for you wretched Noxians…"

A small, shining object drifted lazily downwards, spiraling like a leaf in autumn. One of the mages tilted their robed head back to see what it was; it was the last thing he saw before what had apparently been an incredibly strong explosive ripped him and dozens of his friends into chunks of burnt flesh.

And still the mage wave seemed endless.

"…You'll pay for what you've done tenfold."

* * *

Chaos, total chaos—and, for once, Vi wasn't the cause of it.

She had lost track of how many faces she had beaten in, ribs she had fractured, and lives she had ended, but the pinkette was beginning to guesstimate that the numbers were in the hundreds by now.

This was fucking ridiculous… Were mages as common in Noxus as rats were on the streets of Zaun!?

A short distance to her right, Annie was standing in a gap among hooded figures, swiping at the air with fingers curved into mock claws. It would have been cute, in a weird way, had her terrifying shadow bear not been looming over her, mimicking the action and shredding the oncoming mage wave with razor sharp, flaming claws.

And still their numbers marched steadily forward, mage after mage after mage; some cast protective barriers (all the better to punch through), others attempted to summon terrible familiars (the pause was all Cait needed to snipe them from her position overlooking the square), and still others were mowed down by a combination of _Mystic Shot_s and Gatling gun-like fire from Heimerdinger's turrets and—wait, was that…?

Yes, it was: the Ball was bobbing gently about an inch above the ground around the feet of the scrambling enemy forces, awaiting a command from its mistress. The Android seemed to materialize at Vi's side, her head tilted in an almost curious fashion. **"So strange, they scream."**

As if on cue, the Ball shot out a _Shockwave_, yanking in the mages closest to it and there were terrified screams of pain as the spikes along the outside of the weapon's surface rent flesh in two.

Vi winced sympathetically. "Good to see you, Ori. We can use all the help we can get."

The robotic Champion nodded. **"We will kill your enemies. That will be fun."**

Leaving the pinkette with that sentiment in mind, the Lady of Clockwork slipped off into the throng.

It wasn't until the sky split open, releasing a blinding deluge of water upon the heads of the combatants, that Jayce reappeared, leaping into the air with his Mercurial Hammer high above his head, to smash it down; the resulting impact created a crater and a sonic boom that sent several hooded figures flying.

Swain's forces showed no sign of dwindling.

Vi blinked rain out of her eyes and rolled her shoulders. She was starting to get tired. When a soft sound emitted from her communicator, she grinned and opened the link to include the Sheriff of Piltover. "Hey, Cupcake!"

The brunette fired off another well-aimed shot and the mage who had been sneaking up on the bruiser's six became a part of a steadily-growing pile of bodies. "What is it?"

"What's the protocol you give your A.I to kick total ass?"

There was a perplexed pause. "Oh. I believe you mean Delta-3396?"

"Em, you heard that?"

"Yes, madam."

A bright surge of light momentarily returned the sky to daylight and the pinkette released an excited whoop, diving forward to scoop Annie up and making tracks towards the Capitol building. "We're gonna join you, Cupcake. Watch the show."

Thunder cracked and the Dark Child wrapped her arms around the bruiser's throat, burying her face in the crook of her neck. Behind them, Tibbers lumbered, swatting viciously at any enemy spell-caster that dared to look at his mistress. "W-what is that?"

"Back-up."

Emma came roaring out of the sky on wings made of multiple segments of dark metal plates, her bare body a perfect hourglass shape made of contrasting seamless white gold. She lifted an arm and the appendage detached at the elbow, rotating around until several attachments for a cannon-looking weapon stuck out and assembled themselves.

The first blast made the ground rock.

"Vi… What is _that_?" Caitlyn demanded when the bruiser joined her on the roof. Vanessa was standing guard over her mistress, impassive blue eyes following the other A.I with something akin to interest and, somewhere below, Orianna had paused as well, the Ball floating near her waist, coated with crimson.

"That would be Emma."

"Clearly." Her tone was not amused in the least. "That upgrade… It isn't _illegal_, is it?"

"Hey, hey! We needed help, right? So I got us the best help credits could buy."

The Sheriff's sharp hazel gaze watched the android soar by, her faultless features glinting. "How many credits did this cost, exactly?"

"Don't you worry about that." She turned her attention to Annie. "You gonna be okay?"

A nod.

"Great. I need to go deal with our bird problem while Emma keeps them busy." She caught sight of a blur of movement in her peripheral and shouted, "OI! Ez!"

The blonde came screeching to a halt and swerved to join them on the rooftop, his visor lit up with flashes of red and blue. "What?"

"Let me borrow that thing."

He gave her a doubtful look, but hopped off and strode towards the edge of the building. His ult was off of cooldown anyway, and he wanted a clear shot.

* * *

She had a dickens of a time locating Swain, but she found him leaning comfortably against the face of the clock tower, the ravenous crow he kept as a companion perched on the hour hand just above his head.

The Master Tactician sneered when he saw the bruiser, a gust of wind tossing his cape dramatically, making him seem larger and more fearsome than he already was.

Not that Vi was intimidated by _anyone_.

The pinkette leaped down from Ez's hover board and pressed a button on the underside of its tailfin that made it small enough to tuck into her pocket. Once the borrowed object had been safely stowed, she slid into a combat-ready crouch, gesturing for the spell-caster to "come at her".

She wasn't disappointed: Swain's body swelled, becoming feathered and hideous as he limped forward, his curved beak opening to release a raucous sound that made the bruiser flinch and instinctively cover her ears.

Had the mage's _Ravenous Flock _gotten even bigger?

There was no time to consider it as she ducked a sudden eruption of feathered fiends and side-stepped a broad, rotting wing, swearing as sickly green feathers burned the bits of flesh that they touched.

"You're going to pay for what you did to Annie's parents, bird brain."

The bird shrieked with laughter. "Did the child put you up to this, Enforcer? This disagreement is between myself and the young Hastur—I would kindly thank you to leave us be."

A mangled claw swiped at the pinkette faster than she could keep track of and she grunted, flipping backwards and warding off another jab with her gauntlets. "I'll say this and I'll say it once." The woman caught the wing that swung at her, ignoring the way her skin crawled and yanking the feathered monstrosity closer so that she could meet its dead, beady eyes. "You fuck with Annie, you fuck with me. And you won't like fucking with me."

In way of response, the mage let out another eardrum-piercing sound; the moment Vi's grip weakened, he tore away from her, swatting her aside like a horse would a troublesome fly.

"You presume too much, woman," the garbled voice said, wings spreading to their full length. "Know your place!"

The flock of miniature crows that flew from the dark wingspan was magical in origin, latching onto the bruiser and burrowing into her flesh in the manner that a tick would. She released a startled yelp and flailed as she felt the little buggers writhing just beneath her skin—a revolting itch that could never be scratched.

"The fuck did you just do?" the pinkette demanded, icy cold discomfort warring with steadily heating panic. She had seen the foul aberrations disappear the moment they had come into contact with her exposed bits of skin, had seen them evaporate even as she felt the discomfiting sensation of being invaded by deadly, magical parasites.

"You need not worry about it for the time being—"

Even as he said it, the world began to dim at the edges of her vision and her stomach heaved, violently expelling the contents of her stomach onto the shingles of the roof to be washed away by the steady downpour. Her legs gave out and she fell into a crouch, giant hextech gauntlets the only thing keeping her from eating concrete.

"—Of course… You'll be _dead _in a few minutes."

x-x-x

Annie flinched, her hand lifting instinctively to cover her heart as a grim sense of unease filled her to the very core.

'_Swain…'_ She didn't need to be near him to know that he was casting _that _spell—

_/ "Dispatch these worms," the general ordered, turning his back on the two familiar forms sandwiched between two burly Noxian soldiers. He paused, however, turning slowly to face them again. "Actually… I have a better idea."_

_The male lifted his arms, pointing a hand at each of the captured mages. If he expected fear from his prisoners, he got none; the woman, a petite red-head with dark blue eyes, straightened her spine proudly. "Do your worst, Jericho. You're far worse off than we could ever be—Noxus has claimed your body and soul."_

_His snort of laughter was a far from pleasant sound. "You act as though I possessed a soul to begin with, Amoline." To the tall man with blonde hair and piercing green eyes, he said, "You're quiet, old friend. Could it be that you've seen the error of your ways?"_

_By way of response, the man turned his head and spat, a mixture of blood and saliva landing on the toe of Swain's boot. He didn't make a sound when the soldier cuffed him sharply, only stared at the Master Tactician with a look that was equal parts rage and pity._

"_Tch. Say your farewells, then. And to that daughter of yours as well—what was her name again?" He made a thoughtful sound. "Ah… Annie, was it?"_

_Both mages went stock still, flames burning in their gazes and the air around them fluctuated—a warning. "You touch a hair on her head—"_

"_Gregori, you really have no room to threaten anyone," Swain interrupted caustically. In the next moment, he shed his humanoid form and became a giant crow, his eyes glinting dully with a mindless sort of maliciousness. From under his spread wings flew miniature versions of the crows that usually accompanied him on the battle field; they darted forward and attached themselves to the couple, making both Hasturs cry out in discomfort. "Release them."_

_The soldiers did as they were told and Gregori and Amoline fell to their knees in the dirt, their skin writhing with whatever it was that had taken residence in their bodies._

"_What… Have you done…?"_

"_You told me that there was nothing worse than losing your soul." The general leaned in a conspiratorial manner, whispering, "You were wrong."_

_A scream left the woman and she tore at the cloth covering her chest, flames erupting from her mouth and eyes as her magic became unstable._

"_AMOLINE!" The blonde started forward, but shadows danced around his lower body, wrapping around him and holding him there. "Stop this at once, Jericho."_

"_Mm… I don't think I will."_

_The shadows reared up, malevolent clouds of energy that choked the life from Gregori even as he cast one last spell to protect his precious daughter. /_

"Annie, what is it? You're crying." There was a rare note of concern in Caitlyn's voice and her brow was furrowed slightly. She didn't stop firing, however, despite the fatigue that showed plainly in the set of her shoulders.

"Vi," she choked out, scrubbing at her eyes. "She's in trouble."

"What?!" The brunette dropped a hand to her waist and pressed a button on the side of the half-gear symbol of her loyalty to Piltover. "Vi."

No response; not even the crackle of static.

Caitlyn swore and Annie blinked, shocked. The Sheriff of Piltover really did care for her partner. "Vanessa, contact Emma. Tell her—" Hazel eyes flicked to the sky: bolts of energy rained death on the gathered mages who, without the guidance of their leader, were beginning to falter. "No, never mind. Lock onto Officer Vi ID. No. 8762939 and take Annie to her. Primary objective is to protect Annie—do you understand?"

The A.I blinked, the only sign of protest she had ever shown to this day. "Primary objective is to protect—"

"_Annie,_" the woman insisted. "I'll be fine."

"… Understood."

"Hurry."

Vanessa nodded, holding her hand out to the mage. "Come, A-nnie."

* * *

The Dark Child felt her anxiety worsen the closer they got to Swain. She had faced him on the Fields of Justice after he had murdered her parents in cold blood, of course, but this was different.

Now, her stomach roiled like the sea during a storm, her heart pounding in her ears like a drum.

Something was very wrong—she could feel it.

"Target found," Vanessa announced, her superior vision spotting what the spell-caster's very human one had yet to. The A.I. was carrying the young mage and, had Annie been in the mind-set to appreciate such a thing, she would have been both impressed and unsettled by how quickly they were soaring through the rain-dimmed sky. "Officer Vi: vitals, unstable. Unknown ailment caused by… unknown."

"Magic," Annie supplied, a tremor in her voice. It felt as though there was a giant, invisible hand clutching her heart, squeezing it.

"Unknown ailment caused by magical interference," the android corrected herself. "Commands?"

The red-head blinked, caught off guard. "Umm… Focus Swain?"

"Target acquired: mage with unusual power levels. Initiating attack protocol Alpha-6186."

Before Annie could even think to ask what that entailed, she caught sight of the combatants on the roof of the clock tower and her heart stopped beating for what felt like a small eternity:

Swain was standing over Vi's fallen form, his ghastly ult activated. He was laughing, the sound cruel enough to make even Tibbers roar anxiously.

"So nice of you to join us, Annie," the abomination cawed. "How does it feel to lose yet another loved one?"

'_Another…?'_ No, it couldn't be…

"Please be okay…"

Vanessa placed her passenger gently on the roof and launched herself forward, blades shooting out of the hem of her hoopskirt as she spun like a top. Swain fell back, unsure of how to treat this new foe, but it was only a matter of time before he regained his sureness and—

No time to think about that now.

"Vi!"

At the sound of her voice, the pinkette raised her head, a weak grin touching her lips. "Well shit, kid… Didn't want you *cough* to see me like this."

"This" was ashen skin and a blotchy, inky rash. "This" was tremors and a fever and a stomach that heaved like a bucking bronco. "This" was the smell of death in the air—a cloying smell that the rain couldn't quite wash away.

_This_ was terrible.

"…" The girl lowered her head and, instantly, the rain stopped falling. No, that wasn't right—the rain didn't _stop_—it merely evaporated with a quiet hiss before coming anywhere within a fifty yard distance of the Dark Child. Thunder rumbled, but she didn't flinch, her gaze fixed on the floor, her now-dry bangs covering her eyes.

"Return to Noxus, Annie Hastur," Swain commanded, pinning the android down with a three-toed talon. Even her immense strength was no match for the power of the Master Tactician's _Ravenous Flock. _"As a dark mage, you will be immortal and, together, we will rule the mages of Noxus."

When she didn't move or acknowledge that she had heard him, Vi chuckled. "Face it, bird brain," she wheezed. "Annie's not a gullible idiot like the rest of your posse." She lifted a hand and rested it on the red-head's knee, though the simple action seemed to be incredibly taxing. "Don't cry, kiddo. I…"

At the bruiser's hesitation, the young woman blinked. "You…?"

That faint pink hue that rose in her cheeks wasn't due to the fever. "I, um… Love… You…"

Annie's blood went cold as, the moment those precious words left the Piltover Enforcer's lips, her eyes rolled back in her head and she slumped bonelessly.

"Vi…?"

Swain opened his beak to release a startled squawk just as a feral roar drowned the sound out, an immense, vaguely bear-shaped form looming over the caster made entirely of shadow. Gone were the flames that danced and roared within Tibbers's form; in their place was a chilling, wrathful energy that burned hotter than any fire did—or could.

The Shadow Witch within the Dark Child had reared her malevolent head.

This new, shadowy version of Tibbers lunged forward, much faster than he had been before, and caught Swain by the wing in icy fangs, ripping the appendage clean off and shocking the male back into his human form as he slammed into the ground some distance away.

His arm hung limply at his side, blood dripping down to form a crimson pool as he rose to his feet. "What… Are you?"

Vanessa sat up, sparks flying from a crack in her otherwise flawless porcelain mein. "Apologies. I could not complete my task as directed."

Annie shook her head, holding a glowing hand over Vi, palm facedown. "Can you… Help her?"

"I will make an attempt." From bright blue optical receptors came a greenish beam of light that swept over the bruiser's body. "Pulse rate: abnormally low. Blood pressure: abnormally low. Body temperature: abnormally high. Seeking source of ailment now."

The A.I wouldn't be able to find anything… Would she? Annie could only hope—

"We're not done here, girl!" Swain snarled, attempting to staunch the flow of blood with his cape.

It was the that the red-head looked up, the intensity of the hatred burning in electric green orbs making the man take an unconscious step backwards. "I was a child when you took my parents from me," she murmured. "And I was powerless. But now…"

Tibbers sank into the ground and, moments later, a pool of spectral energy bubbled under the Master Tactician's feet, tendrils rising up and solidifying into giant, clawed paws that held him fast. The shadow bear's mistress rose slowly to her feet, a strange calm settling over her. Her heart _ached_, but it no longer hammers against the inside of her ribcage, and the mixture of despair and unease that had been swirling around her mind had settled down, allowing her to think very carefully about her next move.

Swain struggled against his bindings to no avail; he summoned a flock of crows to attack, but the young mage's _Molten Shield _nullified the spell and every desperate attempt that followed until she was standing before him, her head canted to the side in the manner of a curious cat.

The girl raised a hand, her glowing palm a few inches from the older mage's face and he flinched. "Release me at once."

"Too proud to beg for your life?" He spat on the ground near her feet and she smiled—a sadistic, chilling expression. "Ironic how the roles have changed." When the man didn't reply, Annie frowned and tendrils of dark energy wound around her forearm. "No clever last words, Jericho?"

She supposed she had been expecting the ghastly green ball of energy that flew towards her; what she didn't expect was for it to fly right over her shoulder, towards Vi—

"_NO!_"

There was a sharp sound and the _'thud' _of a body falling limply to the rooftop: Vanessa had met the attack head-on in an attempt to protect the fallen pinkette and now the sparks flowed out in a steady stream and her eyes were dimming.

"Objective… Completed…" the A.I. gasped before falling still.

Annie's ears went flat against her head and, without glancing back at the captured mage, the girl summoned a pillar of flame and malevolent energy that could be seen for miles and would leave only a memory of the cruel Noxian general. He screamed horribly as the flesh was melted from his bones and Tibbers howled as a delirious laugh left his mistress.

She was free. She had avenged her parents' deaths and she was free.

"Beaten by a little girl… Hah."

A pained groan disturbed the Dark Child from her thoughts and she quickly ran over to rejoin her fallen lover, falling to her knees next to the woman and struggling with her dead weight as she attempted to sit the pinkette up. "V-Vi?"

"I feel… Like absolute… Shit."

She _was _a little green around the gills, but the fact that she was even conscious right now was an incredible improvement. The mage squealed and crushed the bruiser to her, covering the older woman's face with kisses and whispering, "Thank Ifrit…" as Tibbers dispelled into fragments of umbrage, the hate that fueled his new form being replaced entirely by happiness.

Everything was going to be alright.

"Whoa, whoa, slow down there," Vi sputtered. "What happened, exactly? There was this bright light, then Cait started yellin' at me about something, I think."

Right… The Sheriff. Green orbs flicked over to the inert android and azure orbs followed suite. "Fuck. Cupcake's gonna be furious."

None of that mattered right now. She was just glad that the pinkette was okay. Annie cupped the woman's cheek and kissed her soundly, pouring every bit of adoration and relief that she felt in that very moment into the contact. When she pulled away, the Piltover Enforcer seemed dazed.

"What was that for? Not that I'm complaining…"

"I love you."

Her expression—surprised, awed, confused—was priceless and the spell-caster couldn't help but smile. Everything was going to be okay. There was a low sound and Vi flinched, reaching up to touch her collar. "Cait?"

"_Where in the name of all that is technologically advanced have you been?!"_

—at the same time Emma questioned—

"Madam, are you okay?"

"Er…"

"She's fine, Caitlyn," Annie responded, taking the bruiser's hand in her own. "I think we should take her home, though. Vanessa, too."

"_Affirmative. The mages here fled; Jayce and I are inbound."_

"Ugh. Don't bring that scrub here." She was clearly feeling more like herself, though she allowed her head to rest on the younger woman's shoulder. "And you might want to have Heimy look at Vanessa. Her android's in pretty bad shape."

A groan. _"You're always costing me more and more credits."_

"You'd still do me, right?"

"_VI!"_

The rain had slowed to a fine drizzle, the fine mist shimmering from the heat the mage gave off. It touched her skin now, her defenses completely lowered from a combination of exhaustion and relief.

Everything was going to be alright…

And the sun peeked out from behind the dark clouds.

**-End Chapter-**

****Almost done :D


	8. Everything?

**-Everything?-**

When Vi said that Annie slept for _days _after the incident, she wasn't exaggerating.

Despite all she'd been through, the pinkette had only slept for about 36 hours at the most and the girl had curled up with her sometime a few days ago… yet here she was, still asleep _after _her bedmate had awoken. The red-head showed no sign that she would regain consciousness any time soon—in fact, the woman was pacing back and forth next to her own bedside when the Dark Child awoke, wringing her hands anxiously and checking her clock tower display every now and again.

The moment she noticed that electric green eyes were open, she relaxed visibly,—shoulders drooping, brow unfurrowing—a relieved sigh leaving her before she could help it. "Thank goodness…"

Annie smiled and it was as though the Piltover Enforcer was seeing the sun for the first time in days. "Nice to see you, too."

"You've given me gray hairs, kid."

A pout. "I'm not a kid."

The expression was wiped from her face by an affectionate, lingering kiss. "I know, Princess."

Annie purred, goosebumps dotting her skin as she reached up, looping her arms around the bruiser's neck and stopping her from straightening. "Who said you could stop?"

"You should—"

"I should what?" Amusement glittered in her eyes, but there was something else there—hunger. "_Rest_? I think I've had enough of that."

Vi swore her heart skipped several beats as she was pulled rather forcefully into an eager, demanding kiss that had her head spinning from the intense passion behind it. When slim hands slipped under the tank top she was wearing, the older woman tried to straighten up again. "Hold on a sec—"

"No more waiting."

And, suddenly, the pinkette found herself on her back, her petite, apparently sex-crazed housemate bunching her tank top up around her armpits and glaring at her bra before pushing the offending article of clothing out of the way as well and kneading pale, malleable mounds, her ears twitching.

Her resemblance to a cat would have been cute had her actions not sent little waves of pleasure lapping along Vi's spine.

The arousal that had dimmed down to smoldering embers was fanned into a raging inferno in mere seconds; Annie tweaked and rolled a rosy nipple, taking the other into her mouth and applying slight pressure with her teeth, which had Vi hissing and arching her back, subconsciously offering herself to the younger girl. When the pyromaniac acquiesced, introducing suction to the mix, the pinkette released a low moan and spread her thighs, another, louder, moan escaping her when a slim thigh pressed up against their apex.

She couldn't help it: she ground against the mage like a cat in heat, hips rolling, spine arching.

Ah fuck… At this rate, she would—

Delightful friction sent a current of electric sparks from neuron to neuron, completely overwhelming her pleasure receptors and making the bruiser's eyes roll back in her head, hips twitching, inner muscles clenching wantonly.

Annie's eyes widened when Vi grabbed the front of her T-shirt and smashed their lips together, though she eagerly swallowed the sounds of pleasure that the bruiser couldn't quite muffle.

When the tremors subsided and the bliss that had flooded her dimmed to more manageable levels, the fighter turned a horrified shade of scarlet. "Ohholyfuckingshit."

At her volume and tone, the Dark Child jumped. "W-what? What's wrong?"

"I just…"

"Just…?"

She groaned. "And you didn't even touch me."

It took her a moment to piece together what her lover was saying, but when she did, Annie grinned. "Seriously?"

"Fucking hell…" Mortification swelled in the bruiser's chest and she suddenly found that she couldn't meet the other woman's gaze. "That's never fucking happened before—I just… _Ugh."_

A delighted laugh left the mage and she locked lips with the pinkette again, pouring all of her affection into the contact. "I still love you," she murmured when they parted.

"Fucking hell."

At the spell-caster's lighthearted laughter, azure eyes narrowed. "Watch it, kid."

"Or what? You'll go all teenaged-boy-loses-virginity on me again?"

That shade of scarlet couldn't be healthy. Still, the bruiser's expression was deadly serious as she sat up, looming over the shorter girl in a decidedly threatening manner.

Maybe Annie should—

The red-head squealed as she was grabbed and flipped onto her stomach, across Vi's knees. When a hand came down, the palm making firm, powerful contact with her rear, she squirmed and bit her lip to stop the half-yelp, half-whimper that threatened to leave her.

Why… Did that excite her? On top of the massive tidal wave of wet heat that had resulted from fooling around with the taller woman, there was now a dull, incessant throbbing.

In fact, she couldn't help but lift her rump, offering herself to the embarrassed warrior. Her efforts did not go unnoticed, naturally.

"Will you look at that…" the Piltover Enforcer murmured, giving her housemate a pinch. "Why am I not surprised?"

"What is _that _supposed to—"

'_SMACK!'_

This time, the whimper did escape and the Dark Child's inner muscles clenched expectantly as that hot little spike of pain-pleasure melted into liquid heat to pool between her thighs. She wanted Vi and she wanted her now_._

Ifrit's sake, she was going to burst.

There was a chuckle—as though the pinkette knew the tables had turned—and a warm, rough hand slid along the curve of Annie's ass, slipping under the hem of her oversized T-shirt…

…

…To find that the mage wasn't wearing any underwear _and_ that she had made an absolute mess, the muscles in her thighs quivering as her excitement dribbled out onto them.

"Holy fuck, Princess."

There was awe in her tone and, before Annie could comment, long, slim fingers stroked over slick, swollen lips and the spell-caster moaned low in her throat, raising her hips eagerly.

"Please…"

She wasn't sure of what she was asking for, but Vi seemed to know; the pinkette took advantage of the angle created by the girl's raised hips to slide a single finger into tight heat, biting her lip at the way the walls of Annie's feminine channel clutched at the intrusion. "This'll hurt a little, kid."

"I trust you."

The fighter blinked, stunned—that was another three word sentence that she didn't hear too often. For a moment, she was, well, _overwhelmed _by the heartfelt sentiment. The way the mage whimpered and wiggled her hips snapped the older woman back to reality, however, and she raised her thumb to toy with the red-head's clit, hoping to get the girl's inner muscles to stop clenching quite so tightly.

Her efforts were rewarded by another whimper—this one desperate—and the Dark Child gasped hotly, her hips twitching. _"Vi…!"_

A smile curved the pinkette's lips and she took pity on her lover, stretching the walls of Annie's feminine flower with gentle fingers and slowly thrusting two in and out of tight heat until a steady stream of moans left the spell-caster and she was pumping her hips in an attempt to deepen the contact.

It did indeed hurt when Vi thrust deep enough to break through the thin covering of the mage's hymen, but that slight stab of discomfort was nothing compared to the onslaught of sheer bliss her petite frame was flooded by as the pinkette lost no time in curling her fingertips and pounding into a spongy spot that made the younger woman see stars.

It felt as though those bodies of heat and light were swelling deep within her, threatening to go supernova as skillful digits brought her speeding towards the peak of ecstasy, mercilessly filling her over and over until—

Vi purred something that might have been, "Cum for me, Princess" as the palm of her left hand came crashing down against pale globes of flesh.

—they exploded into a wave of molten pleasure, shockwave after shockwave rocking the red-head to the very core. Her vision swam, a euphoric cry leaving her as her muscles went taut, and her walls clenched tightly around Vi's fingers, desperately seeking to prolong the toe-curling, earth-shattering sensations.

Reading couldn't do the physical act of being fucked any justice—she knew this now. Her private flesh ached in a very pleasing way and she felt a muzzy sense of satisfaction as she curled up with her lover in the afterglow.

There was a moment of silence save the labored breathing of the spent caster. Then, "Ifrit, that was—"

Whatever it 'was' was interrupted by an explosion of bright white light and balmy heat and Vi recoiled, screwing her eyes shut. When, eventually, the light faded, the pair looked on as the feather charm floated lazily to the carpet, glistening dully.

"Does that mean…?"

Annie grinned and pulled the other woman into a deep, ecstatic kiss. "This is me, Vi. For good."

"Thank goodness. I think I'd have Cait shoot me in the face if you accidently transformed into a little girl while we were fooling around."

The traumatized expression the bruiser wore suggested that this wasn't the first time she had considered such a thing and the red-head laughed, leaning in to claim those soft, plump lips once again. As the kiss became something a bit more than affectionate, Annie slipped her hand between the older woman's legs, teasingly stroking drenched curls.

"Ready to redeem yourself?"

"_Mm…_ Born ready."

(break)

"I think this is yours."

Morgana looked up from the dusty roll of parchment she had been poring over, her expression terrifyingly vexed. When she saw who had spoken, however,—and more importantly, what they were holding—she blinked, her brow relaxing. "I take it the Noxian invasion did not go well for the invaders."

"You knew?"

"Of course." The sorceress held a clawed hand out and the charm in the Dark Child's hands flew to it.

As it lost its luster and crumbled into ash to be carried off by a well-timed breeze, Annie asked, "But… You didn't help. We were against impossible numbers that could have completely leveled the City of Progress."

"I am an immortal, child," was the brusque response. "I don't mettle in mortal affairs if I can help it."

"Unless, of course, she can cause havoc," Kayle mused, landing between the two in a crouch. She straightened, her luxurious wings folding primly against her back. "Congratulations, Annie."

The young Hastur beamed. "Thank you."

"Come inside. Tell us about your adventure."

Before Morgana could protest, the blonde drew her in and silenced her with a deep, passionate kiss. By the time the two broke apart, Annie was blushing madly, her face—not to mention other places—overly hot.

"Actually, guys, I have a date tonight." It was true—she had officially become a citizen of Piltover and she and the Enforcer were the talk of the city. "We'll have to catch up later."

"All the better for me to help my dear sister relax," the Judicator purred, her tone leaving no doubt as to how she was planning on doing just that.

The ashen woman smiled wickedly, drawing her lover back in for another kiss. Before their lips met, however, she turned her head towards the red-head. "Return here once more and I will ensure that you regret it."

Annie blew a raspberry, taunting—

"'Beaten by a little girl… Hah!'"

—and dancing calmly out of the way as a sphere of dark energy came hurling towards her.

As she was chased bodily from the realm, the last remaining Hastur had to admit that she had never been happier.

**-Fin-**

And there we have it, folks :3 I'd like to thank all of my readers for their continued support, whether it was a review (or several) or a favorite. This was loads of fun and hopefully my next multi-chaptered League fic will be just as successful. Thanks for reading!

**-Distraction**


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